Barack Obama reveals annual list of favourite books
Incidentally his memoir, A Promised Land also came out this year. He, however, did not include it, even though he opined that he thinks it is a pretty good book Updated: December 18, 2020 9:11:21 pm
Check out the list here. (AP/file)
The year is almost about to end and former US President Barack Obama has come up with a list of books that he enjoyed the most this year. Incidentally his memoir,
A Promised Land also came out this year
. He, however, did not include it even though he opined that he thinks it “is a pretty good book.”
How will we remember 2020? It was a year unlike any other in our lifetime one where the burdens and the blessings seemed to resonate more than we expected. While I don’t have the words to comfort all of the hardships we each faced, I know the value of escaping into a book. This year was a watershed year for Native publishing, with more wonderful texts coming to market than I can list in this column. Yet, what follows are the books I feel fortunate to have discovered, and ones I am certain you will come to treasure.
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through is the most important book published this decade. Edited by Joy Harjo (Muscogee), LeAnne Howe (Choctaw), Jennifer Elise Foerster (Muscogee), and others, this enthralling anthology collects 161 Native poets who speak to the resilience of Indigenous voices through the generations. It’s divided into geographic regions, with poets listed chronologically according to their birth. The stanzas run the gamut of e
Last modified on Wed 16 Dec 2020 03.02 EST
Six months ago, independent publishers Jacaranda and Knights Of were warning publicly that their income had fallen to almost zero. They werenât the only small publishers struggling. With bookshops and distributors closing, a survey from the Bookseller at the time found that almost 60% of small publishers feared closure by the autumn. No bookshops meant no knowledgeable, passionate booksellers pressing new books they loved on to customers; no events and no travel meant that crucial avenues for introducing new writers had disappeared.
The stars had been looking very happily aligned for Oneworld in March. The independent publisher had three of its biggest books scheduled for the month â a novel from Womenâs prize winner Tayari Jones, Silver Sparrow; a new thriller from the bestselling crime author Will Dean, Black River; and Damien Loveâs novel for older children, Monstrous Devices. It had printed point-of-sale materials,