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Barbara Kingsolver wins Women's Prize for Fiction with Appalachian novel 'Demon Copperhead'
Read full article: Barbara Kingsolver wins Women's Prize for Fiction with Appalachian novel 'Demon Copperhead'American novelist Barbara Kingsolver has won the prestigious Women’s Prize for Fiction for a second time with “Demon Copperhead.”.
New this week: 'Spirited,' Pokémon, 'Nope' and 'Slumberland'
Read full article: New this week: 'Spirited,' Pokémon, 'Nope' and 'Slumberland'This week’s new entertainment releases include an album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse, a documentary about how Mickey Mouse became beloved by children and adults and a cash machine for Disney’s growing entertainment empire, and Chris Hemsworth puts himself and his body to the test in National Geographic’s “Limitless.”.
Virus shuts many UK theaters but online the show goes on
Read full article: Virus shuts many UK theaters but online the show goes on(Aaron Chown/PA via AP)LONDON – When Andrew Lincoln steps onstage at London’s Old Vic Theatre as Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” he looks out on an empty auditorium. The Old Vic is among theaters trying to keep the flame alive. That includes London, where theaters had just begun to reopen after a four-week national lockdown ended Dec. 2. The Old Vic has mounted an “In Camera” season of plays performed on its stage and broadcast online. Playwright Jack Thorne’s adaptation has been a hit at the Old Vic for the past three Christmases.
Cheers! Or not: 'Scandalous' 1st Christmas card up for sale
Read full article: Cheers! Or not: 'Scandalous' 1st Christmas card up for saleThe first commercially printed Christmas card is up for sale — a merry Victorian-era scene that scandalized some who denounced it as humbug when it first appeared in 1843. “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You,” it reads. That didn't sit well at the time with the puritanical Temperance Society, which kicked up such a fuss it took three years before another Christmas card was produced. “They were quite distressed that in this ‘scandalous’ picture they had children toasting with a glass of wine along with the adults. It's believed to have gone on sale in the same week in December 1843 that Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol” first was published.
'Shuggie Bain' writer Douglas Stuart wins Booker Prize
Read full article: 'Shuggie Bain' writer Douglas Stuart wins Booker PrizeLONDON – Scottish writer Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize for fiction Thursday for “Shuggie Bain,” the story of a boy’s turbulent coming of age in hardscrabble 1980s Glasgow. Stuart, 44, won the prestigious 50,000 pound ($66,000) award for his first published novel, the product of a decade of work. Stuart dedicated the book to own mother, who died when he was 16. Though there have been many British winners of the Booker Prize, most of them English, Stuart is the first Scottish victor since James Kelman took the 1994 prize with “How Late it Was, How Late” — a book Stuart has called an inspiration. Mantel won the Booker for both its predecessors, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies,” and had been widely tipped for the hat trick.
A one-man 'A Christmas Carol' fills theater need in pandemic
Read full article: A one-man 'A Christmas Carol' fills theater need in pandemicFILE - Jefferson Mays arrives at the "I Am the Night" FYC event in Los Angeles on May 9, 2019. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)NEW YORK – What does the theater community desperately need during a time of social distancing? Tickets purchased via the show's website will automatically benefit local community theaters based on the ZIP code the user enters. It was his introduction to the theater, and he and his family would read it every year. “They need help now.”Partner theaters include Actors’ Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Sankofa Collective, South Coast Repertory, Springfield Contemporary Theatre, Theatre Tallahassee, and Vermont Stage.
2 cities handled this health crisis different. The results couldn’t have been more opposite.
Read full article: 2 cities handled this health crisis different. The results couldn’t have been more opposite.With all due respect to Charles Dickens, this is a tale of how two cities handled a health crisis via social distancing, with opposite results. Days later, hospitals in the area were filled with patients suffering or dying from the Spanish flu. On the other side of the ledger, things were way different in St. Louis. After detecting its first cases of the Spanish flu in the community, St. Louis closed buildings such as schools, churches, courtrooms and libraries. The Spanish flu was nothing to mess around with, since ultimately, an estimated 20 to 50 million people died after contracting the virus.