Book News You Can Use 3/21/14


Several months ago at the National Conference on Health Disparities (the conference that sent me to St. Thomas), I heard from several panelists regarding human trafficking for labor and sexual purposes.  The one that touched me the most was hearing from Lisa Williams, who is the founder of Living Waters and Circle of Friends in Atlanta.  For the last several years, Lisa has helped girls escape sex trafficking, violence and street life.  Everyone was moved when she discussed the human sex trade among young girls and what they go through.

All of this started to come back while I was reading Anybody's Daughter by Pamela Samuels Young. The Image Award-winning books is about a 13-year-old girl who is kidnapped and winds up in the human sex trade.  Her uncle, along with his girlfriend (who is the main character), tries to find her.  It's sad that what is happening to girls around the world is not fiction.  I am reading this book for my book club and we will probably have a lively discussion tonight.

Relax in Paradise Lucius Shepard.

Congratulations to NoViolet Bulawayo for winning the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best Debut! And Mitchell S. Jackson was a finalist!

Speaking of Mitchell, check out his essay in Salon on how he survived the streets of Portland.

Walter Dean and Christopher Myers asks where are the people of color in children's books in New York Times opinion pieces here and here.

This essay by Kiese Laymon and his mom is cute. And the title reminds me of a Kanye song.

Check out this New York Times video of Helen Oyeyemi explaining the inspiration of her new book, Boy, Snow, Bird.

Divergent came out in the theaters today. But is the YA boom dwindling in both books and movies?

Speaking of YA movies, the trailer for The Giver is out!

Congratulations to Kwame Alexander for the release of his new book! Check out a story about The Crossover in the Washington Post.  For those in the Charleston area, he will be doing a book signing for his new book at Blue Bicycle Books on March 28.

Can't believe that BuzzFeed only came up with 33 reasons why you're addicted to books.

Ralph Ellison would have turned 100 this month.  This essay in The Root explains why Ellison's work and legacy still matters.

I just found out that I won Every Day Is For the Thief on Goodreads.  Here is a NY Times article about the book's arrival to the U.S.

The author of Pippi Longstocking will appear on Swedish money.

In last week's Book News, I talked about Jason Mott and how his book has been turned to a hit TV show.  Here is an interview from last year in Shadow and Act.

Here is video of Wednesday night's conversation between Zadie Smith and Chimamanda 

Ngozi Adichie at the Schomburg Center.

I don't know what two blog posts spoke to me this week: Read For Pleasure's post on the lack of diverse books in independent book stores or RubiconReader's take on authors not editing their work.

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