News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Book News
- More on the HarperCollins/Amazon story: HC has notified multiple retailers that “it will be returning to a full agency model for e-book sales next week,” which sounds like the next salvo in the publisher’s growing standoff with Amazon. (The Bookseller)
- Oyster launched a new ebook store on April 8. . . and all of the Big Five publishers are on board. You don’t have to be a subscriber to purchase books, either. (PRNewswire press release)
- Oops! The quote on the new Maya Angelou stamp from the USPS? Turns out it isn’t by Angelou. (The Guardian)
- The 2015 ITW Thriller Awards finalists have been announced (International Thriller Writers)
- Best Translated Book Awards 2015 longlist announced (Los Angeles Times)
- British publisher Faber & Faber will “enter the U.S. market directly” through an agreement with Perseus Book Group. (GalleyCat)
- The OverDrive app now has a dyslexic font option. (Overdrive blogs)
- Salman Rushdie gave really low ratings to famous books on Goodreads. Apparently he thought the ratings were private. (Kelsey McKinney for Vox)
- Rowling (again) refuses to rule out return to world of Harry Potter – but at the same time, she’s not planning anything except the Fantastic Beasts movie(s). (TODAY)
Worth Reading
- The Hugo Awards Were Always Political. But Now They’re Only Political (Charlie Jane Anders, i09)
- Why Writers Love to Hate the M.F.A. (Cecilia Capuzzi Simon, New York Times)
- Invisible Women – on why Disney bought Marvel & Lucasfilms, why the merchandise so seldom features female characters, and what we can do about it. (“Annie N. Mouse” for The Mary Sue)
- Why Keep Books? (Tasha Brandstatter for BookRiot)
- You Can’t Say That in Clean Reader – a chat about the app, how it works, what it eliminates and substitutes, and whether it counts as piracy. (The Socratic Salon)
- Too Busy to Watch a Movie? Read a Book (Alice Burton, for BookRiot)
Book & Movie Announcements
- Terry Pratchett’s final Discworld novel, The Shepherd’s Crown, to publish on Sept. 10, 2015. The book, completed by Pratchett last summer, features his teenage witch, Tiffany Aching. (The Guardian)
- The radio adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens will be rebroadcast by BBC Radio 4 – and the episodes will be available online for a month after broadcast. (BBC Radio 4)
Freebies, Bargains & Giveaways
- Diversity in YA is celebrating their fourth anniversary by giving a way a whole slew of YA books featuring “main characters who are of color, LGBT, and/or disabled.”
Awesome Lists
- 18 Things Anyone Who Grew Up Loving Books Understands. (Buzzfeed) I fit all of them, except #12 because we didn’t have that back then.
- Australia’s 101 favourite books of all time (The New Daily)
- J. K. Rowling’s life advice: 10 quotes on the lessons of failure (The Guardian)
- 13 Book Prints to Spice Up Your Walls (BookRiot) The prints link to Etsy and Society6, where you can purchase them (and sometimes the same image on other products, such as mugs and tote bags.)
- Top 10 twins in children’s books (The Guardian)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
- LEGO is planning a Doctor Who set! (PopSugar) I want one!
- Can We Guess Your Age Based on Your Taste in Books? (Quiz, on BuzzFeed Books) They guessed mine wrong by about 24 years! (Apparently I’m still in my 20s. [winks])
- From Henry VIII’s Codpiece to Anne Bolyen’s Corset: Inside Wolf Hall’s Period-Perfect Costumes (Julie Miller, for Vanity Fair)
Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn and Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII. Courtesy of Giles Keyte/Playground & Company Pictures for MASTERPIECE/BBC.
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Bea @Bea's Book Nook
I took that age test and apparently I’m 22. Umm, that was several decades ago. 😀 😀
The Dr. Who legos are exciting.
You always find the most interesting links. 🙂
Bea @Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…Bea Reviews The Big Snow and Other Stories: A Treasury of Caldecott Award-Winning Tales by Berta Hader & Elmer Hader
Lark_Bookwyrm
I want those Doctor Who LEGOs – I think they would be fun to play with on and around my desk. But I guess I don’t really need any more “stuff”!
R_Hunt @ View From My Home
Glad Oyster will try to give Amazon a run for their money but I checked out the site and they have a looong way to go to catch up.
My grandson would love those Dr. Who Legos; he has gone back to Legos after putting them away for awhile, because of all the cool sets he has, such as LOTR and Minecraft.
Re book twins: how about Bert & Nan, and Flossie & Freddie Bobbsey, from the very old series, The Bobbsey Twins (1904-1979)? I don’t have a great memory..I googled their first names. This sticks in my memory because I picked up a phrase that my Mom used with my brother and I, and now my daughter is using with her kids on occasion–a generation of kids who never heard of these books. Example: If you gave a snack or a gift to one child and the other one wants the same exact thing, we would say, “Why do you have to be a Bobbsey Twin!” Wow, sounds strange when I write it here, lol– believe me, we’re not weird folks 🙂
Have a great week, and thanks as always for your Saturday News.
R_Hunt @ View From My Home recently posted…The Stranger– An Open Fan Letter to Harlan Coben
Lark_Bookwyrm
I devoured the Bobbsey Twins books when I was little. I had a bunch that had been my mom’s and then my aunt’s (they are 12 years apart.) Yes, they should have been on that list – but The Guardian is a British publication, and maybe the BT books weren’t published or weren’t as popular there?
Kaja
Ha, the book test thingy only missed my age by 2 weeks – I turn 28 at the end of April! 🙂 This is the first time I’ve ever been correctly evaluated like this.
I love these lists of yours, they’re great fun + informative.
Kaja recently posted…Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich
Lark_Bookwyrm
I got 28, too, and I’m a little over 50! I’m glad you enjoy the links!
anna (herding cats & burning soup)
Wonder how that will work out for HC. I know I won’t be buying via their website. A shame since I do like their books but that’s just not going to happen.
anna (herding cats & burning soup) recently posted…#AtoZChallenge–Influenster for the kitties!
Lark_Bookwyrm
Since I have a Kindle Paperwhite, I can’t buy from stores other than Amazon unless there’s no DRM, because I can’t use the store’s app to read my books. So I guess I’ll be stuck until HC and Amazon work out their differences.
Lily
Ahh do i want to do the age test? Maybe one day i’ll click on it and take the challenge. I love the quote Lark. Applies to me everyday!
Lily recently posted…The Assassin’s Blade (Throne of Glass 0.1-0.5)
Lark_Bookwyrm
Give a try – what’s the worse that can happen?!
Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf
I got 28 and I haven’t seen that side of 30 in …well…a long time…lol
Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf recently posted…Added to the Bookshelf – 4/12/15
Lark_Bookwyrm
Me too, Melissa! I’m a few years shy of twice that – but only a few.