Sixth Form Library

Newsletter December 2020

Prize winning books Beatles in Time (Craig Brown, Baillie Gifford prize). Nominated for numerous awards in 2019, and winner On the bedside Table of the Crime and Thriller category in the 2020 British Where better to look for reading inspiration Book Awards, My Sister the than the Bohunt Sixth Form staff? This Serial Killer is a short, darkly month there is a recommendation from the humorous novel about a admin team’s very own Sara Richardson. Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very “I’m not always a fan of books inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. that everyone raves about, but I picked it up on the Scottish author Douglas Stuart won this year’s recommendation Booker Prize with his debut novel set in 1980s Glasgow which the judges describe as a “an of a friend and was amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping hooked portrait of addiction, courage and love”. instantly. A Other 2020 fiction prize winners to look out beautifully written for include The Discomfort of Evening story, atmospheric (Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, International and descriptive… Booker Prize), Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell, you can really feel Women’s Prize for Fiction), The Sunken Land the environment Begins to Rise Again (John Harrison, come to life that the story takes Goldsmiths Prize), Lost children Archive (Valeria Luiselli, Rathbones Folio prize), Girl place in… This is a wonderful Woman Other (Bernadine Evaristo, British book.” Book Awards) and Queenie (Candice Carty- Where The Crawdads Sing, Williams, British Book Awards). Delia Owens Non-fiction winners in 2020 include Afropean: Notes Other staff suggestions are: From a Black Europe The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Rowena) (Johny Pitts, Jhalak Prize), Some kids I Taught and Auschwitz by Laurence Reece, Gulag by Anna What They Taught Me, Applebaum and Dresden by Sinclair Mackay (Kate Clancy, Orwell Prize (Christian) for Political Writing), and Circe by Madeline Miller (Sarah Tutton) One Two Three Four: The

Please note that from 2021, there will be a separate Higher Education and Careers Bulletin giving university news, careers information and industry focus articles. December 2020 Persian Fire by Tom Holland and Infamy: the Orwell political fiction prize, John The Crimes of Ancient Rome by Jerry Toner Lancaster’s Capital (for geographers), I (Will Chrystal) Claudius by Robert Graves (students of class Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and The civ) and Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, a Invisible Furies by John Boyne (Lucy) gripping analysis of the ethics of AI for Step by Step by Simon Reeve (Gary Leeson) computer scientists (and anyone else wondering where AI & robotics is taking us). Academic extra reading Calling all Year 12s. There is really no better time to start reading around your subject than during this Christmas holidays. Really. You have plenty of time to experiment, so no need to wade through things you find boring. Borrow a selection from the library, dip into different chapters to see what interests you, finish the bits you enjoy, make notes on anything that gives you pause for thought, and if you are overwhelmed by the desire to know more, you can ask the librarians for further recommendations … There are reading lists for all academic subjects on the sixth form library webpage, (https://www.bohuntsixth.org/library/acade mic-reading-lists/) and your subject teachers or the librarians can make other suggestions. Free books online For a bit of light relief, If we don’t have the book you want to read, you can also read there are a few places you can look online. subject-related fiction. The Hampshire Library Service has a digital Historians don’t need to look library with ebooks, and all Hampshire far to find quality fiction to students are eligible to join. Go to support their studies – think https://www.hants.gov.uk/librariesandarchiv Pat Barker or Hilary Mantel – es/library/jointhelibrary. (They also have but here are plenty of options good online research resources for members). for other subjects too. Scientists might enjoy Sunfall, a gripping Lots of books not under copyright can be debut novel by quantum physicist Jim Al downloaded at Project Gutenberg Khalili which combines solid scientific fact https://www.gutenberg.org/. with imaginative science fiction. Or for economists, there is the ultimate credit Amazing MOOCS crunch novel, Union Atlantic, by Adam Haslet (I found it totally gripping). “Union Atlantic So, you have read lots of books and now you sets itself the daunting challenge of doing for are looking for something else to stimulate late capitalism what Heart of Darkness did for your mind? Time to try a MOOC. (A MOOC late colonialism. It is a measure of Haslett’s is a free online course run by a university, and extraordinary skill that he just about there plenty geared at sixth formers). They succeeds.” – FT review. are absolutely brilliant. And they don’t need to take nearly as long as the universities Others to look out for include Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, 2020 winner of December 2020 suggest… Interesting ones currently on offer For details of the courses above, and a full list include: of all the courses available, go to Future Learn at https://www.futurelearn.com/. Young People and Their Mental Health What are the most common mental health Other online hosts include Coursera, EdX problems, what can you do about them and amd MOOClist. how do you improve your mental health? Academic Competitions Human Rights and International Criminal Law: An Introduction Put all that new learning to good in an Explore the connection between human rights academic competition. law and international criminal law and reflect Cambridge’s Newnham College will be on their similarities and differences. releasing titles this month: Modern Sculpture: An Introduction to Art https://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/admissions/un History dergraduates/newnham-essay-prizes/ Grow your visual analysis skills as you learn how to describe and learn from public https://www.immerse.education/essay- sculpture artworks at the University of York. competition/

Environmental Challenges: Scarcity and https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/events/cla Conflict in the Natural Environment ssics-and-ancient-history-essay-competition- War and conflict can severely disrupt the 2020-21/ governance of the environment. What is the impact on both people and the environment? https://uniofglos.blog/bioscience/2020/09/1 7/2020-bioscience-essay-competition-from- Food and Nutrition: The Truth Behind Food university-of-gloucestershire/ Headlines Learn how to find reliable, scientific Questions for the Sheffield University history information about food and nutrition and prize are to be released shortly: identify the truth behind food headlines. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/history/essay- competition An Introduction to Sociolinguistics: Accents, https://www.nchlondon.ac.uk/essay/ Attitudes and Identity Learn how sociolinguists explore the https://iea.org.uk/Monetary-Policy-Essay- relationship between language and the Prize expression of personal, social and cultural identity. Questions for the Royal Holloway psychology essay competition are to be released this term. Jane Austen: Myth, Reality and Global https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying- Celebrity here/schools-and-colleges/activities-by- Discover the fascinating story of author Jane subject/psychology/psychology- Austen, from her own life in Hampshire to resources/national-psychology-competition/ what she means to a global audience today.

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December 2020 Other things to do over Khan’s Giselle and La Sylphide. Christmas https://ondemand.ballet.org.uk/ 24 hours of non-stop science from the Cosmic A bit more expensive is Morpheus’s Shambles, immersive theatre (set in a dystopian world https://cosmicshambles.com/ninelessons?cm ravaged by a virus…hmmm) where you _ven=RIGB&cm_cat=09+December+Subscri interact with live actors to save the world. ber+Newsletter&cm_pla=All+Subscribers&c m_ite=https%3a%2f%2fcosmicshambles.com https://morpheus-show.co.uk/ %2fninelessons&cm_lm=003D000001MNSp OIAX&cm_ainfo= The Show Must Go On (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPj The Royal Court Theatre is running a counter hKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag) is a You Tube narrative living newspaper, £10 for livestreaming. channel well worth a browse – free and pay- https://royalcourttheatre.com/home/livingne for content covering everything from wspaper/ Shakespearean sonnets to Andrew Lloyd Apparently, the best Christmas offering this Webber musicals. year is A Christmas Carol streamed from the Old Vic. The RSC presents a live-streamed hour of https://www.oldvictheatre.com/whats- music and reflection. The programme on/2020/old-vic-in-camera/a-christmas- includes carols, songs and festive extracts carol-5 from past productions of Shakespeare plays – something to bring a little light to a pandemic English National Ballet is releasing short films winter of discontent. every Monday or you can rent full-length https://www.rsc.org.uk/events/tales-for- recorded live shows, including Akram winter

December 2020

A Christmas Poem, by Wendy Cope At Christmas little children sing and merry bells jingle, The cold winter air makes our hands and faces tingle And happy families go to church and cheerily they mingle And the whole business is unbelievably dreadful, if you're single

December 2020 And finally, ideas for your Christmas stocking…

December 2020