Books and Beyond: Literary Lounge 4

Alison and Ineka discover the power imbalances and pressures still experienced by so many – even though we’ve been “closing the gaps” for years. Join them as they read about normal families, nearly normal families and uncanny valleys.

Listen to this week's episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast.

Ngā Pātaka Kōrero - Auckland Libraries · Books and Beyond: Literary Lounge

 

Books mentioned in the show: 

• Uncanny valley: a memoir by Anna Wiener (2020) 
• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR: A rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup culture in Silicon Valley at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild fortune, and accelerating political power. 
• A nearly normal family by M T Edvardsson (2019)
  CRIME: Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of a brutal murder of a shady businessman. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. This novel asks how well do you know your own children? How far would you go to protect them? 
• Scribe by Alyson Hagy (2018)
  FICTION: Civil war has ravaged the country, and contagion has decimated the population. The Scribe exchanges her letter-writing skills for scarce resources. A gripping novel set in Appalachia that makes a compelling case for the power of stories. 
• Lowborn: growing up, getting away and returning to Britain's poorest towns by Kerry Hudson (2019)
  BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR: Hudson revisits the towns she grew up in to find out what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed. She also journeys into the hardest regions of her own childhood trauma, because sometimes to move forwards we have to first look back. 
• Kim Ji-Young, born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated from Korean by Jamie Chang (2020)
  FICTION: Ms Kim Jiyoung is her own woman. Ms Kim Jiyoung is everywoman. This life story of one young South Korean woman at the end of the twentieth century raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression. 
• Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi; translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot (2019)
  FICTION: An old back-alley Tokyo coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. 
• White fragility: why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism by Robin DiAngelo (2018)
  NON-FICTION – SOCIAL ISSUES: DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively. 
• The warmth of other suns: the epic story of America’s great migration by Isabel Wilkerson (2010) 
  NON-FICTION – HISTORY: Chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.

Auckland Libraries' radio show Books and Beyond explores the world of books with guest authors, recommended reads, gems from the Central City Library basement and… beyond.

Catch us on Planet FM104.6, Sundays at 9.35 pm. Recent shows can be listened to via the Auckland Libraries podcast.