Tag: literature

In Widespread Panic, James Ellroy follows the fictional escapades of LA’s real-life man-about-town Freddy Otash. An infamous police officer and private investigator, Otash became known as a “Hollywood fixer” — working closely with Confidential, the premier gossip rag of its time, to report on the scandals of celebrities and politicians. (He was reportedly the inspiration for Jake Gittes, the detective played by Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown). NPR writes, “Otash was running the show, and Widespread Panic chronicles his rise and eventual fall as he becomes an informant while following a series of plots that include finding Rock Hudson a fake wife to hide his homosexuality and covering Kennedy’s misdeeds to protect his political career.”

 

Anyone who’s ever been intrigued by Ellroy’s distinctive brand of noir fiction will delight in this titillating new adventure, which echoes his most iconic work while continuing to stay fresh.

Her first collection of poems since 2007’s The Door, Dearly will distill many of her most famous themes, like perfect, precise descriptions of the natural world—and it’s damaged state—and exploring pressing political issues. And of course, the supernatural and subconscious will make appearances. Werewolves, aliens, mythology, and dreams provide different ways for Atwood to explore not only contemplative themes like ageing, reflection, and endings; but also, how our present-day bodies, minds, and world are in unprecedented transition. In her classic fashion, Atwood deftly moves between playful and wise, while intricately intertwining moving retrospection.

 

Margaret Atwood’s hotly anticipated sequel to 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale, was able to intertwine her original story with elements of the Emmy Award-winning Hulu adaptation, leading both Handmaid’s and The Testaments to “all feel of one larger world” (Variety). Having already won this year’s Booker Prize, Atwood’s work had an incredible year with accolades from all over the globe—even breaking the record for best first-day sales of any Penguin Random House title in 2019. 

 

“This book is inception, therapy style,” Variety aptly states of Lori Gottlieb’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. Gottlieb started her career as a film and TV executive, then became a nationally recognized journalist—and today, she’s a psychotherapist and bestselling author. Her fascinating life and personal crisis weaves in and out of a much broader conversation on mental health and fulfilment—resulting in, as Variety puts it, “a kaleidoscope of stories about the human condition, love, loss, and how we can all learn from each other.”

 

Heartfelt, heartbreaking and full of hard truths, Angie Thomas’ debut novel, The Hate U Give made waves immediately—and her second novel, On the Come Up has proved to be just as much of a success. It follows the story of Bri, a talented young rapper fighting for her dreams—and her identity—against the odds. Already set to be adapted into a major motion picture, On the Come Up offers Thomas’ signature blend of authenticity, insight, and hope in especially turbulent times. “Thomas always paints a deeply emotional and intricate picture of race and class in her work,” Variety says, “But she also proves she deeply understands the issues young people face when it comes to social media and cultural pressures.”

 

You can read all of Variety’s Top Books of 2019 picks here.

 

To book speakers Margaret Atwood, Lori Gottlieb, and Angie Thomas, contact their exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.

 

 

To book speakers Shoshana Zuboff and David Wallace-Wells, contact their exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.

Lori Gottlieb—Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Therapist Lori Gottlieb chronicles not only the sessions she has with her clients—but also the sessions she has with her own therapist in this refreshingly honest and heart-wrenchingly funny memoir. Variety calls it “a kaleidoscope of stories about the human condition, love, loss, and how we can all learn from each other.”

 

Margaret Atwood—The Testaments
After the explosive popularity of The Handmaid’s Tale TV adaptation, Canadian icon Margaret Atwood wrote a follow-up novel that weaves in key elements from the Hulu series so that “it can all feel of one larger world.” Considering Atwood’s once-cautionary tale has become scarily similar to reality, The Testaments infuses some much-needed elements of hope.

 

Angie Thomas—On The Come Up
An expertly rendered portrait of both class and race issues, On The Come Up also considers misogyny,  censorship, and cultural pressures as it navigates the underground hip-hop scene from the perspective of a teenage MC gone viral. Thomas’ latest YA novel—which follows her smash hit The Hate U Give— weaves in powerful life lessons, “but they are always organic to her protagonist’s situation and relatable to many generations.”

 

Read the full list here.

 

To book a Literature Speaker for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with a talented member on our sales team.

Having already been a household name for decades around the world, Atwood is truly a prolific literary figure—yet few know the private life of the author. Who is the person behind the impactful imagery and oddly prescient stories? Now, thanks a film crew with over a year of exclusive access to Atwood and her late partner Graeme Gibson, we can all share a glimpse of the woman behind the words.

 

Filmed as she was traveling the world for speaking engagements, and completing the final chapters of The Testaments, the documentary shows a never-before-seen side of the literary legend. We see her visiting the set of A Handmaid’s Tale, her writing process, and are privy to many personal stories shared by family, friends and Atwood herself. Her upbringing in the Canadian wilderness, and early days as a poet, are also explored with a thoughtful, intimate approach.

 

Throughout the film, her major works are brought into further clarity, as the personal circumstances that influenced her writing are revealed.  Her poetry and prose are read by Emmy-award winning Canadian actress, Tatiana Maslany.

 

You can watch the trailer for Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power, here. A shorter version of the documentary will be available on CBC GEM on Thursday, November 18^th. It is screening in full in Toronto at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema, until November 17^th.

 

 

To book speaker Margaret Atwood, contact her exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.

Megan Phelps-Roper’s memoir, Unfollow, explores her life as a member of the notoriously hateful Westboro Baptist Church—and how she came to the decision to leave her entire family behind. As the granddaughter of the founder, she was immersed in the Westboro since day one, and eventually became their social media manager. It ended up being this connection to the outside world, where strangers interacted with her on a human level, that she came to see just how wrong her family was. Unfollow follows her journey from lifelong indoctrination in bigotry, to a life dedicated to spreading empathy, understanding, and hope. Her powerful memoir has been called a “must-read” by Publisher’s Weekly, and was praised by Sarah Silverman as being “wildly brave and incredibly thoughtful”.

 

In Lori Gottlieb’s New York Times bestseller, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, she explores what happens when a therapist—someone trained to manage human behavior—experiences her own personal crisis? Her personal narrative is at once intimate and universal; offering a rare glimpse into what exactly it means to be human, through her journey as both a clinician and patient. Mental health, wellness, vulnerability, and relationships are all explored in an ““irresistibly candid and addicting” (The New York Times Book Review) way. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone was named Best Nonfiction Book of the year by O, The Oprah Magazine and is currently being adapted as a television series with actress and director Eva Longoria.

 

In Once More We Saw Stars, writer Jayson Greene shares the incredibly powerful and profound journey through grief and trauma after the accidental death of his young daughter, Greta. It offers a testament of his family’s unwavering strength in the face of tremendous loss. How he tells his “intensely moving, life-affirming story” (Rolling Stone), garnered universal praise, and Greene shares his grief and resilience in an affecting way. The New York Times writes that Greene “has created a narrative of grief and acceptance that is compulsively readable and never self-indulgent,” and Cheryl Strayed described the memoir as “a gripping and beautiful book about the power of love in the face of unimaginable loss.” Once More We Saw Stars is not just a story about loss; but about love, and above all, hope.

 

To book speakers Megan Phelps-Roper, Jayson Greene, and Lori Gottlieb, contact their exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.

“We asked our prestigious panel to create a list of world-changing novels that would provoke, spark debate, and inspire curiosity. It took months of enthusiastic debate and they have not disappointed. There are neglected masterpieces, irresistible romps, as well as much-loved classics,” said the Director of BBC Arts, Jonty Claypole. “It is a more diverse list than any I have seen before, recognising the extent to which the English language novel is an art form embraced way beyond British shores.” 

 

Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie’s canonical work is included among the literary classics, children’s books, and graphic novels included in the list, which will form the basis of a digital reading resource on the BBC Arts website. Atwood’s coming-of-age work Oryx and Crake was selected, while Rushie’s genre-busting The Moor’s Last Sigh made the cut. Both authors also made international headlines earlier this year with the release of their latest works, The Testaments and Quichotte, respectively.

 

To book a Literature Speaker for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with a skilled representative.

As of late October 2019, Atwood is now one of the select few people granted the Companion of Honor award—given for achievements in the arts, literature, science and politics—and only the third Canadian, as it is typically given to British citizens. The royal investiture service occurred at Windsor Castle, where literary royal Atwood met literal Royal, Queen Elizabeth.

 

“I got a bit emotional,” Atwood said of the encounter. “You’re really looking at a lot of history and I’m old enough to remember a lot of that history. Short form, she was brilliant in the war.”

 

Atwood has written more than 40 books of fiction, essays and poetry. She rocketed to international attention with 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale—now a widely popular Hulu series—and since then, has consistently met with accolades and adoration for her oft prophetic prose and sharp eye for exposing some of the darker truths about human nature.

 

Perhaps it’s her odd prescience, in addition to her incredible stories, that has kept her in the spotlight all these years. After the Companion of Honor ceremony, the 79-year-old remarked, “At my age, it’s not the usual thing. Usually at my age you sort of fade away, and that doesn’t seem to be happening yet.”

 

And with her most recent novel, The Testaments (sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale) breaking sales records right out of the gate and garnering Atwood her second Booker Prize, her indominable presence on the literary scene won’t be fading away anytime soon.

 

Nineteen years ago, Atwood accepted the same award for her book The Blind Assassin; and today’s win makes her only the fourth author to have won the prize twice. With the current cultural impact and prescience of the Hulu series ased on her iconic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, combined with its portentous sequel, The Testaments, it’s not a shock that her landmark new offering overwhelmingly captivated the minds of the jury.

 

This year, the jury made an unconventional choice: jointly awarding the prize between two people; both Atwood, and the British author Bernardine Evaristo, for her vibrant and vital work Girl, Woman, Other. Together they mark significant moments for the prize—Atwood, 79, is the oldest-ever Booker winner, and Evaristo is the first black woman in its fifty-year history to take home the trophy. Founded in 1969, the U.K. prize is open to English-language authors from all over the globe. Only twice before has it been split between two winners.

 

The Testaments is set fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, and explores the accounts of three women: a young woman living inside Gilead, a high school student in Canada who wants Gilead fall, and Handmaid’s Aunt Lydia, a powerful woman who understands the workings of Gilead far too well. 

 

To book speaker Margaret Atwood, contact her exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.

Margaret Atwood’s latest book, The Testaments, breaks new ground yet again—this week it’s the #1 hardcover fiction book. According to the New York Times list, The Testaments—in its’ second week since publication—beat out Stephen King’s latest in its’ debut week.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and praised by the likes of NPR, New York Times, BBC, LA Times, and more, The Testaments is her highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It picks up 15 years in the future from where the first book left off, and explores new stories in the dystopia of Gilead—some of which may not seem to far from reality today.

 

Called “powerful, revealing, and engaging” by the Boston Globe, and hailed as “a fast, immersive narrative that’s as propulsive as it is melodramatic,” by the New York Times, The Testaments is well on its way to becoming just as much of a literary classic as its beloved forebear.

 

To book speaker Margaret Atwood, contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau.

The legendary musician’s third memoir walks readers through the tumultuous year of 2016, in which the nation’s collective despair collided with her own personal grief.

“There are crime writers and then there is James Ellroy,” writes the GQ profile on the revered author, who released This Storm (the anticipated sequel to Perfidia) to wide acclaim and bestseller status earlier this year. The magazine has dubbed Ellroy the “Writer of the Year,” an honor that the literary icon—now in his fourth decade of writing—firmly deserves.

 

Read a preview of his GQ profile, which will be released in the October issue of the magazine, here.

 

To book speaker James Ellroy for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agency today.

Chuck Klosterman’s 11th book Raised in Captivity is a collection of stories marketed as “fictional nonfiction.” In their review of the book, TIME magazine wrote that the vignettes—each a “scrollable” length—feel like “a replication of the fractured way we are forced, in the age of technology, to mediate reality and attempt to understand the world around us.”

 

Klosterman echoes that sentiment in his recent interview with GQ: “If you drop a person into the desert, there is a hard reality. And we sort of live now in a mediated reality,” he told the magazine, noting that the advent of the Internet now means most of our reality is constructed.

 

The Internet today almost feels like an echo chamber; a cacophony of voices and opinions. “So often now, particularly with controversial stories, we act as though the controversial story is getting all the attention, but actually it's the reaction to it that's getting far more attraction,” he explains. “Somebody will say something in an interview, and thousands and thousands and thousands of people will react to it and make a new story.”

 

You can read Klosterman’s full interview here.

 

To book Chuck Klosterman for your next speaking event, contact a sales agent at The Lavin Agency.

Following the story of Offred and her fellow “handmaids” in a dystopian near-future, Margaret Atwood’s 1985 classic still strikes a chord today. The book-turned-series is Hulu’s most-watched show, not just in terms of original programming, but out of all the platform’s offerings.

 

And with Atwood’s official sequel, The Testaments—a Booker prize finalist set to be released this fall—it would seem the story is perhaps timelier than ever. But fans need not worry about the new release containing spoilers for The Handmaid’s fourth season: The Testaments will be narrated by three female characters, and will not be connected to the show’s storyline.

 

To book Margaret Atwood, or another Literature Speaker, contact a sales agent at The Lavin Agency today.

 

 

 

 

The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas—Age 15

 

This breakout YA novel tells the story of  Starr Carter, a black high school student who straddles the opposing worlds of the poor residential neighborhood she grew up in, and the mostly white, elite prep school she attends. The tenuous balance is destroyed when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend by a white police officer. Angie Thomas tells a riveting and tragic story of a young girl’s turn toward activism, offering a searing commentary on police brutality, racial inequality, and gun violence in the process.

 

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood—Age 19

 

Given the current state of U.S. politics, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale feels especially prescient. Like George Orwell before her, Atwood didn’t intend to predict the future, only warn against its many dystopian possibilities. She tells the story of Offred, a woman living in the new Republic of Gilead, where women can no longer have jobs, earn money, or even read. As global birth rates decline, Offred’s only purpose is to breed, her only value lying in her continued ability to get pregnant. The Handmaid’s Tale is a brilliant, haunting, perceptive tale of a woman’s desire to survive and rebel against the state-sanctioned horror and devastation around her.

 

Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie—Age 71

 

Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children is a magical story set during India’s transition from British Colonialism to Independence. The protagonist, Saleem Sinai, is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15th, 1947 (India’s Independence Day) and considered a symbol of good fortune and health of the nation. Sinai’s life is inextricable from his country, and perhaps even more strangely, he possesses a telepathic connection with the 1,000 other “midnight children,” all born during the same hour and all blessed with magical gifts. Midnight’s Children is a shining masterpiece of India and its people, told by one of literature’s most singular voices.

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, Ashton Applewhite—Age 94

 

Activist Ashton Applewhite has made it her mission to rebuke the many myths our society peddles us about growing older. In This Chair Rocks, Applewhte takes a radical stance against youth-obsessed culture and the many damaging prejudices borne out of it. With wit and candor, Applewhite chronicles her own personal journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging advocate, and  explains how ageism is deeply entrenched in our institutions, our beliefs, and our history. This Chair Rocks inspires readers to usher in a new era of age pride and create a world of equality.

 

Enertainment One (eOne), has acquired the worldwide rights to the series, and will also be producing it. Francine Zuckerman and Karen Shaw have joined the project as executive producers, though no writer or cast has been announced at this time.