PA/Kirsty O'Connor
Boris Johnson’s adviser is asking job applicants to give him their all. And in return? He’ll fire them on the spot if they don’t fit in.
An image from the book cover for ‘SLAY,’ one of the top 2019 five books for young critical thinkers.
(Simon and Schuster)
A list of 5 great reads for young critical thinkers and the adults in their lives — in time for holiday gift-giving.
A modern Christmas Carol.
BBC/Scott Free/FX Networks
We have an innate desire to be reminded of darkness and mortality during the festive season.
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These seven cli-fi novels will get you fired up for action.
Louisa May Alcott has delighted readers for generations.
AP Photo/Steven Senne
Reading books from people with diverse backgrounds is good for kids.
Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies.
The Chinese Room
Video games present players with rich and immersive digital worlds.
Best-selling Nigerian novelist and literary superstar Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Armando Babani/EPA-EFE
African literary prizes are slowly becoming more relevant and richer, thanks to writers organising on the continent.
Want to capture the heart and mind of a young reader? The five story senses will set you on the right path.
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When writing for adults, authors look towards capturing the five senses – sight, sounds, touch, taste and smell. When writing for children, however, writers should apply these story senses.
Shakespeare’s plays are still some of the most studied texts in school English.
from shutterstock.com
We compiled a list of the 15 most commonly cited books taught by English teachers we surveyed. It contains only two Australian writers, neither of which are Indigenous.
Teachers often assign older books.
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Stories like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Jane Eyre’ are still relevant today.
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The Southern Ocean, as artists have uncovered, is also a treasure trove of cultural narratives.
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Our responsibility to consider how the future might look for generations to come requires imagination.
Janine, a Handmaid, in series three of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Sophie Giraud/Channel 4
The author has returned to Gilead, 35 years after the original novel was published.
Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek read The Very Hungry Caterpillar – which did not make our experts’ list.
Darren England/AAP
If you were in charge of the new parliamentary book club, what Australian book would you want your representative to read? Our experts weigh in.
Committing poetry to memory is so much more than a rote exercise.
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Memorising poetry is a kind of long-term investment. To take a poem with us so we can truly know it, we must know it by heart.
Toni Morrison’s legacy echoes across the world.
EPA-EFE/Arturo Peña-Romano
In some ways, perhaps Morrison is even more relevant in South African universities today than she’s ever been.
Toni Morrison photographed in 2010: in both her fiction and non-fiction, she sought to expose the ‘national amnesia’ underlying often unconscious forms of racism.
Ian Langsdon/EPA
In her creative and critical work, Toni Morrison sought to remap the contours of American literature and culture.
An 1870 portrait of Herman Melville painted by Joseph Oriel Eaton.
Houghton Library
While clear-eyed about the country’s injustices, Melville never succumbed to cynicism. On the author’s bicentennial, American readers could use a dose of his ability to fuse realism with idealism.
Many of the classic books of Canadian literature thrived because of women editors, publishers and agents. Some are profiled here: Anna Porter in the 1970s, Bella Pomer in 2015 and Claire Pratt in 1950.
Diane Pullan; Facebook; special collections
Irene Clarke, Claire Pratt, Anna Porter and Bella Pomer were among the women who changed the face of Canadian publishing. Their achievements deserve our attention.
If you can’t get to Venice, Italy, allow a book translated from Italian to transport you there.
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Reading fiction can increase your empathy and reading fiction translated from another language can improve your cross-cultural understanding. Why not let a book transport you?