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| | | OPEN BOOK
Spotlights new fiction and non-fiction, picks out the best of the paperbacks, talks to authors and publishers, and unearths lost masterpieces. | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN | | | |
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| | PRESENTER | | | |
|  | | | | | | | | Defying any attempt to pigeonhole her skills and talents Mariella combines her television and radio career with that of a prolific journalist.
Over a fifteen-year TV career she has continued to impress both audiences and critics with her friendly, accessible and intelligent screen presence. Her projects run the gamut from current affairs to movies and the arts. She also currently presents the Radio 2 arts show, The Green Room and The Culture Show on BBC2.
As a journalist she is currently the film critic for Harpers And Queen and has a weekly dilemma column in The Observer Magazine, while her book reviews and travel pieces appear regularly in the press. She has also been a member of the judging panels for various awards including the Booker-Mann Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction.
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|  | | Detail from Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky.
Listen to Aaron Lansky interview
Do you have a literary query?
Write to us at the Reading Clinic.
This week's programme
Mariella Frostrup meets a man who saved a million and a half Yiddish books from cellars, bins and dumps across America. Yinka Sunmonu gives details of her Ebony Reads scheme. A N Wilson reports back on reading foreign languages. And a celebration of the laureate of losers, novelist Richard Yates, who has long been feted by other writers for his portrayal of little people crushed by disappointments but has been neglected by critics and academics.
Programme booklist
Yiddish Books:
1) Outwitting History: How A Young Man Saved a Million Books and Saved a Vanishing Civilisation - Aaron Lansky
Publisher: Souvenir Press
ISBN: 028563724X
2) The Brothers Ashkenazi - Israel Joshua Singer trans. Joseph Singer
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0140187774
3) Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories - Sholem Aleichem trans. Halkin Halkin
Publisher: Schocken Books
ISBN: 0805210695
Aaron Lansky also recommended books by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Sholem Asch, Lamed Shapiro and Israel Joshua Singer.
For more information on Yiddish books, click here.
Foreign Languages:
4) The Reader - Bernard Schlink trans. Carol Brown Janeway
Publisher: Phoenix
ISBN: 0753804700
5) Candide - Voltaire trans. Norman Cameron
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0140623035
Black Fiction:
6) The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
Publisher:The Women's Press
ISBN: 0704346664
7) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Publisher: Virago Press
ISBN: 086068511X
8) Beloved - Toni Morrison
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0099760118
9) Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Publisher: Heinemann International Literature
ISBN: 0435909886
10) Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
Publisher: Virago Press
ISBN: 0860685241
11) Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0141185910
12) The Palmwine Drinkard - Amos Tutuola
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571049966
13) A House for Mr Biswas - V.S. Naipaul
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 0330487191
14) Isara - Wole Soyinka
Publisher: Methuen
ISBN: 0413752003
Click here to visit the Ebony Reads website and see the list in full.
Richard Yates:
15) A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates - Blake Bailey
Publisher: Picador USA
ISBN: 0312287216
16) Young Hearts Crying - Richard Yates
Publisher: Horizon Book Promotions
ISBN: 0385292694
17) Cold Spring Harbour - Richard Yates
Publisher: Methuen
ISBN: 0413144208
18) Liars in Love - Richard Yates
Publisher: Bantam Books
ISBN: 0440046696
19) A Good School - Richard Yates
Publisher: Picador USA
ISBN: 0312420390
20) Easter Parade - Richard Yates
Publisher: Methuen
ISBN: 0413773450
21) Disturbing the Peace - Richard Yates
Publisher: Delta Books
ISBN: 0385293321
22) A Special Providence - Richard Yates
Publisher: Picador USA
ISBN: 0312420404
23) Eleven Kinds of Loneliness: Short Stories - Richard Yates
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0679722211
24) Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
Publisher: Methuen
ISBN: 0413757102
E-mail Open Book with your queries or comments about the programme, or to obtain a list of your Life-Changing Books.
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