“We hang on to our values, even if they seem at times tarnished and worn; even if, as a nation and in our own lives, we have betrayed them more often than we care to remember”
Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention on ‘The Audacity of Hope’, which would become the title of his second book.
The full text of the sermon by Jeremiah Wright – ‘The Audacity to Hope’ – from which Obama took the title of his book.
Jeremiah Wright
The Atlantic
After being sent around the world three times by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant for An Idiot Abroad, Karl Pilkington is going it alone on a journey of self-discovery.
Seth McFarlane on A Million Ways to Die in the West
From the creator of Family Guy, American Dad and Ted, a hilarious tale of the west like you’ve never read before.
“Today it’s widely regarded as a classic of American literature. But Fante’s masterpiece has not always enjoyed such prominence. In fact, its journey to its current status has been long and highly unusual…”
Rob Woodard
Guardian
Maria Konnikova at the RSA
How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes - Mastermind - Maria Konnikova. From Practical Psychology
The Lost Time Accidents is a bold and epic saga set against the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. Here, John Wray reads an extract from his ambitious and fiercely inventive novel.
‘It is exhilarating to witness this method operating in non-fiction too. Stitching and collaging odd fragments and genres together, Laing goes beyond reparation to offer something beautifully integrated, original, compassionate. She does not pose as a professional expert; her very subjectivity, her own suffering, confer her authority because they are so enmeshed with her powerful intelligence’
Michele Roberts
The Independent
“How art helped me see the beauty in loneliness…” An edited extract of The Lonely City
Olivia Laing
The Guardian
Artist and writer and Raoul Martinez joins Robin and Josie to kick of Season 5 of Book Shambles. They discuss Creating Freedom, have a debate about free will and chat books
Bookshambles
ACast
“So there I lie on the plateau, under me the central core of fire from which was thrust this grumbling grinding mass of plutonic rock”
