Book Club #6: March
Dear March, how are you, and the Rest—
Did you leave Nature well—
Oh March, Come right upstairs with me—
I have so much to tell—- from 'To March' by Emily Dickinson
Seems fitting to kick off with a bit of Dickinson, since today is World Poetry Day! If you are in around Freddie's this afternoon from 3.30pm, recite a poem and get some free coffee or tea.
What's up
Romantasy, AI and Palestinian voices at the London Book Fair
Authors withdraw from PEN America festival in protest over Gaza
RuPaul's Rainbow Book Bus sends banned books across America, because reading is fundamental
Publisher Hachette revives imprint Jo Fletcher Books as Arcadia
What's on
The Miltonathon, in which the UCL English Department reads Paradise Lost from 9.30am for however long it takes to get chucked out of Eden (10 hours, usually). Around lunchtime, UCL Special Collection librarians will bring in an original edition of Paradise Lost! (Foster Court 229, UCL, March 22)
North London Book Fest, ft. Natalie Haynes, Stuart Turton, Huma Qureshi, Lemony Snicket and more (Alexandra Palace, March 21 to 24)
Viet Thanh Nguyen in conversation (Daunt Books Marylebone, March 25)
Ealing Book Festival ft. Eleanor Catton, Sathnam Sanghera, Jacqueline Wilson and more (Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, April 11 to 14)
What's out
The most anticipated release this month is definitely Until August, the long-lost novel of Gabriel García Márquez, in which a woman revisits the island where her mother is buried every August and takes a new lover. I'm about to start this!
Other exciting new titles in translation include brainy space thriller Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang (the first Chinese woman to win the Hugo), translated by Ken Liu; and The Silver Bone by Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk, a detective mystery set in 1919 Kyiv.
Make room for horror in The Invisible Hotel by Yeji Y. Ham, about generational trauma from the Korean War - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
It may be Shakespeare Week, but Ramie Targoff turns the spotlight instead onto the women writers of the Renaissance in Shakespeare's Sisters, from Aemilia Lanyer, the first woman in the 17th century to publish a book of original poetry, to Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman.
Finally, Judith Butler is back with a new book, Who's Afraid of Gender? We hear there are signed copies at Gay's The Word, so run, don't walk!
Next up...
The book club will be reading Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian for our next meeting on March 27, 8.10pm, in Freddie’s. (Content warning for explicit sex scenes and issues of consent.)
Do get in touch if you would like to suggest a short story for the book club.
Happy reading,
Olivia
(I'm on Instagram with more book reviews - @ohomatopoeia)