Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith

Most of what we say about books is really about the words inside them: the rosy nostalgic glow for childhood reading, the lifetime companionship of a much-loved novel. But books are things as well as words, objects in our lives as well as worlds in our heads. And just as we crack their spines, loosen their leaves and write in their margins, so they disrupt and disorder us in turn.

All books are, as Stephen King put it, 'a uniquely portable magic'. Here, Emma Smith shows us why.

Portable Magic unfurls an exciting and iconoclastic new story of the book in human hands, exploring when, why and how it acquired its particular hold over us. Gathering together a millennium's worth of pivotal encounters with volumes big and small, Smith reveals that, as much as their contents, it is books' physical form - their 'bookhood' - that lends them their distinctive and sometimes dangerous magic. From the Diamond Sutra to Jilly Cooper's Riders, to a book made of wrapped slices of cheese, this composite artisanal object has, for centuries, embodied and extended relationships between readers, nations, ideologies and cultures, in significant and unpredictable ways.

Exploring the unexpected and unseen consequences of our love affair with books, Portable Magic hails the rise of the mass-market paperback, and dismantles the myth that print began with Gutenberg; it reveals how our reading habits have been shaped by American soldiers, and proposes new definitions of a 'classic'-and even of the book itself. Ultimately, it illuminates the ways in which our relationship with the written word is more reciprocal - and more turbulent - than we tend to imagine.

Emma Smith was born and brought up in Leeds, went unexpectedly to university in Oxford, and never really left. She is now Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College and the author of the Sunday Times bestseller This is Shakespeare. She enjoys silent films, birdwatching, and fast cars.

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Emma Smith: Author profile

Emma Smith: Academic Profile: Hertford College, University of Oxford

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Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge by Mark Yarm - published exactly twenty years after the release of Nirvana's landmark album Nevermind - is said to be the definitive word on grunge.

Grunge, also known as the 'Seattle sound', is the sludgy fusion of punk rock and heavy metal that emerged from the Pacific Northwest in the early part of the 1980s. But it was the unexpected, seemingly overnight success of Nirvana's single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' in the fall of 1991, that made grunge a household word and launched an American music movement on par with punk and hip-hop.

20 years later, Mark Yarm captures that era in the words of those at the forefront of the movement (and the music's lesser-known champions). Everybody Loves Our Town will tell the whole story: the founding of originators like Soundgarden and the Melvins, the early successes of Seattle's Sub Pop record label, the rise of powerhouses Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the insane media hype surrounding the grunge explosion, the suicide of Kurt Cobain, and finally, the genre's mid-to-late-'90s decline.

Mark Yarm is an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia Journalism School and the former tech desk editor at BuzzFeed News (RIP). Prior to BuzzFeed, he worked at Input, BreakerMag, and Blender. In addition, he has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, WSJ. Magazine, and Rolling Stone. His book Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, was named as a Time magazine book of the year.

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Mark Yarm: online

Twitter: https://x.com/markyarm

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The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence by Martin Meredith

The fortunes of Africa have changed dramatically since the independence era began in 1957. As Europe's colonial powers withdrew, dozens of new states were born. Africa was a continent rich in mineral resources and its economic potential was immense. Yet, it soon struggled with corruption, violence and warfare, with few states managing to escape the downward spiral.

So what went wrong? In this riveting and authoritative account, Martin Meredith examines the myriad problems that Africa has faced, focusing upon key personalities, events and themes of the independence era. He brings his compelling analysis into the modern day, exploring Africa's enduring struggles for democracy and the rising influence of China. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the continent's plight and its hopes for a brighter future.

Martin Meredith is a journalist, historian and biographer who has written extensively on Africa. A former foreign correspondent and then a research fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, he is the author of The State of Africa (Simon & Schuster, 2005), a best-selling history of the continent since independence, updated in 2011. He has written biographies of Nelson Mandela; Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe; and South African Communist lawyer Bram Fischer.

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Other books mentioned:

Africa Is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa by Dipo Faloyin

An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zainab Badawi

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