News & Notes — 8/17/13

August 17, 2013 News & Notes 12

News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, giveaways on this and other blogs, and other cool stuff.

Books & Ebooks in the News:

Illustration by Helen Stratton from The Lily of Life

Worth Reading:

  • “The New Explosion in Audio Books” (Alexandra Alter, The Wall Street Journal)
  • “Have we literally broken the English language?” (Martha Gill, The Guardian)
  • “I Hate Strong Female Characters” argues that SFCs are limiting (we don’t talk about strong male characters as a ‘type’), that they often serve as a sop (see, we put in a woman!), and that women are woefully underrepresented both behind and in front of the camera in film and television.  The comments are also worth reading; I was particularly interested in the comparison of Uhura from the original Star Trek series versus the “reboot” movies.  (Sophia McDougall, The New Statesman)

For Writers & Bloggers:

Book and Movie Announcements:

Free & Bargain books:

Awesome lists: 

Library at the Benedictine Monastery of Admont (Admont, Austria)

Really cool:

  • Check out this incredible Hobbit cake sculpture by “Marianne”! (Facebook) The chair and footstool are cake, fondant, and gumpaste; Bilbo is modeling chocolate and fondant; and the accessories are edible paper and fondant.  Amazing!

That’s it for this week!

I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles, lists, and links for News & Notes, so please let me know if you see (or write!) anything that might be good for this feature.  You can leave me a comment or send me an email — my address is on the About/Review Policy/Contact page.

12 Responses to “News & Notes — 8/17/13”

  1. readerholicnotes

    Wow, such a neat cake and I love the fairy tale illustration. It always amazes me when something like a bunch of new fairy tales are found. Sometimes in this computer/internet world it seems like there isn’t anything left to be found.

    The breathtaking libraries are so beautiful. Thanks for your news and notes!

    • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

      I’m so hoping they will translate and publish those fairy tales in English! I’d love to read them. I agree; it’s great when something like that is found. Glad you enjoyed the libraries, too!

  2. Greg

    Nice articles on SFC’s and I couldn’t agree more with the Uhura comments! SAfe travels!