Man Booker Prize Awarded To Lincoln In The Bardo
The results are in! George Saunders has been awarded the Man Booker prize for his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. This is the second time in a row the Man Booker has been awarded to an American; Paul Beatty won the 2016 prize. Saunders is the author of six collections of short stories, but he broke out of that format to write an imaginative novel surrounding the burial of Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son. The story’s unique, screenplay-esque format seems to have played a big role in the decision to award the prize to Saunders. If you haven’t listened to the audiobook, it is an experience (with a cast of 166 narrators).
Hogwarts Express To The Rescue!
In odd, jealousy-inducing news, a family was rescued by the Hogwarts Express. Alright. It’s unlikely that staff came around with a cart of pumpkin pasties and Bertie Bott’s, but it was the Jacobite steam train used to depict the Express that picked up a stranded family from Scotland’s West Highlands. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily want to lose my canoe and find myself imperiled, but how do I arrange a pickup departing for Hogwarts?
Students Harass An Indigenous Australian Poet
After Australian high school students read a poem by an Indigenous Australian author in their English exam, they used a Facebook group of almost 70,000 to share memes ripping the poem and poet apart. The Facebook groups, which were open for discussion of the Higher School Certificate, became a breeding ground for videos, messages, and memes of the ugliest sort. The horrors prompted Australian authors and poets to defend award-winning Ellen van Neerven and her poem Mango, from her latest collection Comfort Food. I sincerely hope these children aren’t our future.
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Fans of Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist will love this sweet, satisfying meet cute. It’s the perfect book for anyone who sees the romance in a swirl of snowflakes at the top of the Empire State Building, or anyone who’s wondered if true love was waiting at the other end of the airport ticket counter.