The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight

Monday, 14th June 2021

A rather well-known, well-respected author caused a little bit of a (Twitter) hoo-ha among her fellow writers last week. Jeanette Winterson was so unhappy with the cover, especially the blurb, of her latest book that she felt the need to burn her copies of it – as is clearly her right. She proceeded to post a picture of the burning pyre on social media. Comments and quote retweets followed aplenty. Some people disagreed with the actual burning of books – any books – whilst others felt that displaying her displeasure so publicly was a little harsh on the publishing team behind the cover,

However, it was the text that accompanied the photo that caused the majority of brows to furrow. The author said that the “cosy little domestic blurbs…[had] turned me into wimmins fiction of the worst kind!”. Although there was a side debate on the actual meaning of the term women’s fiction, her disparaging words – especially the flippantly misspelled one – seemed to demonstrate an obvious distaste for the whole genre. In the same way that she is entitled to do as she wishes with her books, she is also very much entitled to voice her opinions.

However, the writers of this particular genre – and their readers – that she appeared to offend en mass rose up in defiance, taking to the very social platform that saw her denigrate their work with the unsurprising hashtag of #wimminsfiction.

There was a wonderful outpouring of love and support for authors and their books. Readers recommended books and praised their favourite authors, and authors responded to their followers in kind.

There have been several articles and opinion pieces written on this event over the last few days – in this one in The Bookseller, Winterson explains a bit more about her book burning ritual. However, there really needs to be a huge follow up article highlighting the huge wave of positivity that followed in its wake.

*Image above is not a recreation but is a photo by Jonny Caspari on Unsplash, and the quote is from The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snickert.

Men’s Health Week 14-20 June
“Everybody’s mental health has been challenged by the lockdowns and insecurities of the last year and it’s not over. As we emerge from what we hope will be the worst of the pandemic, questions, concerns and anxieties remain. Men’s Health Week 2021: how do we move forward?” Men’s Health Forum

Men’s Health Forum have come up with The Can Do Challenge as a response to this question. Each day during the week, there’s a different approach to wellbeing highlighted. The idea is to give each one a try and, if one or more work for you, then why not repeat them as you move forward.

This presentation gives a little more details.

Summer Safety
At this time of year, our tutors start looking at how they can help keep our students safe once the academic year ends as thoughts turn to the summer holiday and freedom. Although this summer will be quite different to most other years, there’s still some good advice to be shared. This is a presentation from the LRC archives.

Book Review
How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi
Rating: 4/5

Amir is 18, American, gay and a Muslim. His family isn’t ultra traditional but nothing about his life with them suggests to him that they will be okay with having a gay son. When it looks like he’s about to be outed by others, he flees. He has no plan but he finds himself flying to Rome. The story follows him as he meets new friends and starts to find out what life can be like if he’s free to be who he wants to be. Of course, his family are worried about their missing son and his younger sister turns detective to find out where he is.

The story is told mainly through Amir’s eyes but the author has cleverly interwoven the points of view of his parents and sister by having the tale told retrospectively from an airport interview room. Amir’s narrative is interspersed with their actual views rather than his supposed ones and it is wonderfully done.

Rome is brought to life – wonderful descriptions of the buildings, the architecture, the food! – and is very much a character in itself, and is a great setting for this particular young man at this point in his life. A great city to find some freedom. Thankfully this book isn’t the old cliche of once he’s in Rome, he is able to ‘find himself’ but he is allowed to BE himself which is just what any teen needs. This is a charming book, full of likeable characters but addressing a real issue that many teenagers face when they’re finding it difficult to be comfortable in their own skin without love and support.

– Alison

We love…

REMINDER: Surrey Libraries will be hosting the second of its online book club, Surrey Page Turners. later this month. It’s a free event although you do have to register to join beforehand. This month’s chat will be held at 7pm on Thursday 24th June and the chat will focus on Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman which centres on the blossoming relationship between 17 year old Elio and the 24 year old scholar Oliver that his parents invite as a houseguest to their home in 1980s Italy.

Follow this link to register.

Students

Book Loans
As we near the end of the academic year, the LRC would welcome the return of all outstanding books that are currently out on loan. Due to the pandemic and lockdowns, all fines have been waived for now. Please return books to the Library Desk by Thursday 24th June.

Top 5 E-Books
The Librarians here at the LRC have been perusing Brooklands College statistics and have kept an eager eye on the top 5 e-books which have been downloaded across our college over the Spring term.

Full list can be viewed here.

E-Book of the Week

Each week, the LRC will be highlighting an e-book that we feel will be of special interest to certain students here. June 5th was World Environment Day and we’ve decided to highlight this resource from Issues Online entitled Waste & Recycling Issues.

If you are accessing offsite, you may be asked to login. Click in the “Shibboleth”login box and select Brooklands College as your home institution. Log on with your college username and password.

Tip of the Week

Access our virtual library online
You can search for e-books on the library catalogue or directly through our e-book providers.. Click on the Shibboleth login if requested and select Brooklands College. If you have any problems please do not hesitate to contact us at library@brooklands.ac.uk.

Heritage Online | Proquest | VleBooks

LRC website
The LRC website contains links to our resources, our online catalogue and is full of information about LRC use, plus there are book reviews, links to our displays and other items of interest. It is only available to College members (sorry) and can be found through links on the LRC Google Classroom, and on the staff and student intranets.

LRC Google Classroom page
Tutors have been invited to join the Classroom and will be passing the joining code on to their students. It’s full of links to resources, and helpful advice and tips.

Please contact us at library@brooklands.ac.uk if you need support with e-books, e-resources or anything else.

Follow @BCLibraryWA