Books Archive
3rd February 2020
How Instagram made books cool again
Are influencers genuinely interested in books or is it all just for the ‘aesthetic’?
22nd January 2020
Alasdair Gray, Scottish avant-garde provocateur, dies aged 85
Will Stonier pays tribute to Alisdair Gray, who we lost at the end of 2019. Will discusses how his literature was recieved in the world, and how his literature can continue to inspire readers today.
6th December 2019
Vicarious travels: On the travel writing genre
Travel writing gives us the luxury of travelling across seas and experiencing a location through somebody else’s eyes
6th December 2019
Review: ‘The Year I Didn’t Eat’ by Samuel Pollen
Yusuf Steel reviews Samuel Pollen’s debut novel, a tentative and honest story about one boy’s internal struggle
4th December 2019
The Reading Agency Christmas appeal
The Reading Agency is a charity that has a host of projects which could do with your support
4th December 2019
Gifts and reads for the New Year
Mancunion books editor Shaheena collects recommendations from the Mancunion Books team for gifts and reads this Christmas and New Year
26th November 2019
A novel for the Anthropocene: Richard Powers’ The Overstory
Will Stonier considers how Richard Powers interacts with the anthropecene in his book of short stories
21st November 2019
Truth in fiction: Arundhati Roy
Books Editor Shaheena discusses Arundhati Roy, an Indian author whose fiction shines a light on injustices in her home country
21st November 2019
“The angriest black man in America”: The autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a central piece of literature for understanding race relations today
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21st November 2019
Why do we put books on a pedestal?
Alice Porter attempts to de-spell the myth that books are the supreme form of popular culture, despite being a self-proclaimed book lover
14th November 2019
Review: Little Fires Everywhere
Writer Sam Bronheim reviews Celeste Ng’s New York Times bestseller and its exploration of the multiple roles of women
14th November 2019
Review: ‘The Demon’ by Hubert Selby Jr
Selby’s The Demon is a disturbingly raw account of how difficult it is for some to escape their inner urges and destructive tendencies
8th November 2019
His Dark Materials, a BBC adaptation
Faiza Hussain discusses the airing of the BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials
7th November 2019
Manchester hosts Make Yourself a Little Bit Famous launch
Penny Haslam’s New book How to Make Yourself a Little Bit Famous hits shelves this month, providing tips for anybody with a career in the public eye
1st November 2019
Review: Robert Macfarlane — Underland
Robert Macfarlane’s Underland discusses our relationship to the earth beneath our feet, review by Will Stonier
31st October 2019
Review: ‘The Testaments’ by Margaret Atwood
Fashion editor Alice Porter argues that the ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ sequel prioritises plot over politics with a novel that was unnecessarily built up
17th October 2019
Don Quichotte: Renewing old stories
Shaheena reviews Salman Rushdie’s latest book – a modern retelling of Don Quixote in ‘the Age of Anything-Can-Happen’
15th October 2019
Opinion: Man Booker continues to fail black women
The Man Booker Prize is being praised because a black woman, Bernadine Evaristo, has won for the first time, but what does her having to share the prize say?
11th October 2019
Opinion: Marx and the issue of Apologism
Shaheena Patel takes a look at figures who impact our current modes of thought, and the orientalist viewpoints that affected their work