What are you reading the week of June 4, 2016?

Zadie Smith FRSL (born on 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer.

Smith was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. As of 2016, she has published five novels, all of which have received substantial critical praise. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors, and was also included in the 2013 list. She joined New York University's Creative Writing Program as a tenured professor on 1 September 2010. Smith has won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2006 and her novel White Teeth was included in Time magazine's list of 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

Zadie Smith was born as Sadie Smith in the north-west London borough of Brent to a Jamaican mother, Yvonne Bailey, and an English father, Harvey Smith. Her mother had grown up in Jamaica and migrated to England in 1969. Their marriage was her father's second. Zadie has a half-sister, a half-brother, and two younger brothers, one of whom is the rapper and stand-up comedian Doc Brown and the other is rapper Luc Skyz. As a child she was fond of tap dancing; as a teenager she considered a career as an actress in musical theatre; and as a university student she earned money as a jazz singer and wanted to become a journalist.

Her parents divorced when she was a teenager. When she was 14, she changed her name to "Zadie". Despite earlier ambitions, literature emerged as her principal interest.

White Teeth was introduced to the publishing world in 1997, before it was completed. On the basis of a partial manuscript an auction among different publishers for the rights started, with Hamish Hamilton being successful. Smith completed White Teeth during her final year at Cambridge. Published in 2000, the novel became a best-seller immediately. It was praised internationally and won a number of awards. The novel was adapted for television in 2002 by Channel 4. Smith also served as writer-in-residence at the ICA in London and subsequently published, as editor, an anthology of sex writing, Piece of Flesh (ICA, 1999), as the culmination of this role.

In interviews she reported that the hype surrounding her first novel had caused her to suffer a short spell of writer's block. Nevertheless, her second novel, The Autograph Man, was published in 2002 and was a commercial success, although the critical response was not as positive as it had been to White Teeth.

After the publication of The Autograph Man, Smith visited the United States as a 2002–03 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow at Harvard University. She started work on a still unreleased book of essays, The Morality of the Novel, aka Fail Better, in which she considers a selection of 20th-century writers through the lens of moral philosophy. Some portions of this book presumably are included in the essay collection Changing My Mind, published in November 2009.

The second novel was followed by another, On Beauty (published in September 2005), which is set largely in and around Greater Boston and which attracted more acclaim. This third novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.

Later in the same year, Smith published Martha and Hanwell, a book combining two short stories about two troubled characters. Originally published in Granta and The New Yorker, Penguin Books published Martha and Hanwell with a new introduction by Smith as part of their pocket series to celebrate their 70th birthday. The first story, "Martha, Martha", deals with Smith's familiar themes of race and postcolonial identity, while "Hanwell in Hell" is about a man struggling to cope with the death of his wife. In December 2008 she guest-edited the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

After teaching fiction at Columbia University School of the Arts, she joined New York University as a tenured professor of fiction as of 1 September 2010. In 2010, The Guardian newspaper asked Smith for her "10 rules for writing fiction". Among them she declared: "Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied." Beginning with the March 2011 issue, extending until October 2011, Smith was the monthly New Books reviewer for Harper's Magazine. Smith's latest novel, NW, was published in 2012. It is set in the Kilburn area of north-west London, the title being a reference to the local postcode, NW6.

In 2015 it was announced that Smith, along with her husband Nick Laird, was writing the screenplay for a science fiction movie to be directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis. Smith later claimed that her involvement had been overstated and that she had simply helped to polish the English dialogue for the film.

In the fall of 2015 Smith further announced that her fifth novel, entitled Swing Time would be published in the fall of 2016.

Smith met Nick Laird at Cambridge University. They married in 2004 in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. Smith dedicated On Beauty to "my dear Laird". The couple lived in Monti, Rome, Italy, from November 2006 to 2007, and are now based between New York City and Queen's Park, London. They have two children, Katherine (Kit) and Harvey.

Well, I received my replacement copy of Anne Garrels' Putin Country from Amazon. So this weekend, I plan to finish that and Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl.

Thanks for the bio Fred. Zadie Smith is a terrific writer and while I haven't been a fan of all her books, I'm always interested to see what she'll come up with next. Looking forward to Swing Time.

Way back in the last century when I was still in school, I started reading James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man but had to put it aside when I got too busy with classwork. I'd say it's about time that I finished what I started (although I actually had to start over from the beginning this time).

Still in a sort of reading slump so I'm still working on The Book of Phoenix and Alien Emergencies.

I picked up Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End and I think it's terrific. This is one of those right book at the right moment things. Roiphe has a deft and gentle hand as a writer and the writers she picked are a diverse bunch so, strangely(given the subject matter), I can't put it down.

Reading Lab Girl and Dodgers.

I just finished up F.B. Eyes... a book about how the FBI tracked, infiltrated and attacked Black writers...since the inception of the BI agency.

I also finished up Originals by Adam Grant. It's a nice read for anyone who likes Malcolm Gladwell.

Now I'm reading Sophie's World a narrative about the history of European philosophy. The story line begs for help, but I am enjoying going through the history of western philosophy. I guess I'm in a philosophy kind of mood.

>1 fredbacon: Thank you for the bio, Fred!

I am reading the delightful The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough, the story of one of the Pride and Prejudice sisters twenty years along. It is most definitely "chick lit", but highly enjoyable. I do like Pride & Prejudice fanfic.

Began The Forgetting Time last night. Interesting and a fast read so far.

Finished Wigan in the Great War by Stephen McGreal: not bad, but not exactly gripping.

Hope to finish Tess of the d'Urbervilles in the next day or two.

Lab Girl was excellent, and now I've started the Nebula winner, Uprooted.

I am reading a fascinating book about the depression and Shirley Temple. History and movies - my favorite topics.
The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America by John F. Kasson.

Finished The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor and started a re-read of "A" is for Alibi by Sue Grafton.

Finished My Bonny Light Horseman: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War by L.A. Meyer. Love this series! Eager to get hold of the next in the series right away.

Now reading The Summer Book by Tove Jonsson and Imani All Mine by Connie Porter.

>1 fredbacon: Thank you for the information about Zadie Smith, a writer I've come to admire.

>12 jnwelch: I'm so pleased you liked Lab Girl -- I hope to read it this summer.

I'm almost finished with LaRose -- another memorable and beautifully written book by Louise Erdrich.

Next up: The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes.

>15 nrmay: I loved The Summer Book, hope you do, too!

I just finished English Creek and it was a treat. I love Doig's young narrators. I'm currently reading Fangirl and listening to Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.

About halfway through Emma Straub's latest Modern Lovers, a great summer weekend read.

I finished A River Cross My Heart which was a good depiction of the black community of Georgetown during the 1920's although the plot line gets a little lost in the descriptions.

>17 Copperskye: I'm another fan of The Summer Book. I originally knew the author from her Moomintroll books which I read with our daughter. She's got a wide-ranging skill set.

I finished Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End and it was quite thought provoking and, really, a good read. Amazon had James Hilton's Lost Horizon on sale so I bought it on an impulse. I think I had to read it in high school; I picked it up last night and, so far, it's a darn fine novel.

>17 Copperskye:

Picked up The Summer Book as result of an LT Book Bullet!
Like it enough that I ordered a copy for my sister for her birthday.
I have noticed that you and I have liked many of the same books!

i am reading Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Steven Milhauser.

>20 jnwelch: Back when I read The Summer Book, I remember our dear friend Pat talking about the Moomintroll books. She was a big fan and introduced me to them. I'd forgotten that Jansson did both. Thanks for the connection.

>22 nrmay: Yay for LT book bullets and similar libraries! I bought my own copy of The Summer Book after I read a borrowed copy. :)

Driving from California to Michigan. Day #1.....listened to The Early Stories of Truman Capote by Truman Capote. Day #2 will start off listening to Summer Crossing by Truman Capote.

This morning I finished a children's book: The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis, which was quite enjoyable. The author did a fine job of looking at a horribly racist bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, from the perspective of a 10-year old boy, and examines the emotional effects of the bombing on said 10-year old. (Quite clearly PTSD)

Now I am reading Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase, the follow-up to her memoir about convent life, which I read last week. This book deals with her severe difficulty adjusting to civilian life after years in a very strict Catholic convent, and the anorexia and mental health problems that ensued from her departure from religious life. Good books, both of them.

Finished crying over the heartrending story Imani All Mine by Connie Porter.
I'm starting Torn Thread by Anne Isaacs. Also looks sad.

Began Perfume by Patrick Suskind and My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. I was in my early teens when I last read the Durrell but parts of it are coming back to me.

Finished "A" is for Alibi by Sue Grafton and started Pierced by the Sun by Laura Esquivel.

Day #2 of my cross country drive I listened to and finished Summer Crossing by Truman Capote and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, delightfully narrated by Scarlett Johansson.

I started listeniing to #11 in the Stephanie Plum series, Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovitch.

I finished When Tenants Claimed the City: the Struggle for Citizenship in New York Housing by Roberta Gold. This is a very engaging book for anyone interested in New York City history, especially the history of the Progressive movement in the post-WW2 period. Gold clearly lays out the context of the battle for tenants' rights in New York. then she provides a detailed and lucid history of that movement, its many ups and downs, and the many interesting people, predominantly women, who led it. You can find my more in-depth comments on the book's work page and on my own 50-Book Challenge thread.

Full disclosure: this book is written by my wonderful sister-in-law.

I'm now reading the Civil War history, The Guns of Cedar Creek by Thomas A. Lewis.

Ended up loving Lost Horizon by James Hilton. I'm now back to Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli and enjoying it.

I'm engrossed in Hearts and Bones by Margaret Lawrence.

I finished The Noise of Time, Julian Barnes' brilliant novel about Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and music and art and Soviet tyrants determined to control artistic expression.

Next up: Dark Star by Alan Furst.

Finished Modern Lovers and Moo this week. Plan on starting Lab Girl tonight.

Enjoying Dodgers and Jane Steele.

Day 3 of cross country drive I finished listening to Eleven On Top, and started The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters, and finished it on day 4.....about 20 minutes before reaching my destination. Perfect!

Next up for listening is Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume.

The new thread is up over here.