Books I read in April

How Words Get Good: The Story of Making a Book by Rebecca Lee In the author’s mind, he offers a fascinating look at the journey from making a book to a finished book. He praises the large number of people involved in producing the book, including authors who choose to remain anonymous, ghost writers, literary agents, proofreaders and editors, and processes such as writing, translation, indexes, footnotes, cover design, printing, and more. . In addition to demystifying certain elements of the publishing industry, it has many curiosities. For example, Donald Trump asked his ghostwriter, Mark Schwartz, to pay half the cost of the launch party for ‘The Art of the Deal’, as Schwartz received half of the advance and royalties (p. 47), and the Japanese. James Joyce’s version of ‘Finnegans Wake’ “needed three separate translators after the first disappeared and the second went mad” (p. 216). Lee has been the editor-in-chief of Penguin Press for over 20 years and the richness of his experience is highlighted in his fun anecdotes and encyclopedic knowledge. Fun and bright, it is highly recommended for bibliophiles everywhere, especially for those who like weird curiosities.

Ben Machell’s Unusual Suspicion Stephen Jackley is the narrator of a bank robbery in Exeter and Worcester, like today’s Robin Hood, and he believes it was an attempt to combat poverty and injustice by stealing money from the rich to give to the poor. As a 21-year-old geography student at the University of Worcester with Asperger’s Syndrome, Jackley did not match the typical profile of bank robbers and police have missed several opportunities to identify him since he had his ten robberies in six months. He was arrested in the South West of England in 2007 before being finally arrested in the United States. Jackley admitted to having an interview for the book, but did not take the editorial lead over the Machell account of his account, which does not examine the origins of his family in detail. As the title suggests, this is a very unusual story with many unanswered questions and contradictions, both of which are key elements of an engaging real crime account.

I didn’t hear it Irresponsibility of Kirsty Capes until this year was a long list for the Fiction Women’s Award. In 1999, fifteen-year-old Bess lives with a foster family and discovers she is pregnant in the summer when she is being taken by the GCSE and does not know what to do. Her best friend, Eshal, is her only confidant and she is struggling with her choice of arranged marriage. Capes himself grew up in the surveillance system and his true voice shines through in a compassionate novel that is compelling and measured in the balance of complex issues. It’s a remarkable debut novel and I’d love to see it on the Women’s Fiction Award list (but I’m glad Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss and Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle are both there as well). I look forward to reading Capes ’second novel‘ Love Me, Love Me Not ’which will be released later this summer.

We need to talk about money at the hands of Otegha Uwagba The author is a memoir that examines her relationship with money in the life of a black British millennial woman living in London. The issue is up for grabs and could spark a new trend in the memory of confessionals. Uwagba moved to the UK from Nigeria when he was five years old with his family, and won a scholarship to a private school in London before studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. She reflects on her experiences in the world of work (season, salary negotiation, office culture, sexism, racism and self-employment) and the realities of the London wage market and her path to pandemic housing. Uwagba writes with great perception about privileges and social classes and about the opportunities and obstacles that can be presented in different situations. Attractive and passionate.