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.
Banned Books Week officially ends today. While not every link this week is related to Banned Books Week, a number of them are.
Books & Ebooks in the News:
- Amazon, Perseus reach new e-book deal. No details are available about the terms, but it does beg the question – what was Perseus willing to accept that Hachette is not? And will the Amazon-Perseus agreement put more pressure on Hachette and Amazon to come to terms? (Publishers Weekly)
- Author James Patterson will donate £250,000 to indie bookstores in the UK and Ireland. This comes on the heels of his 2013 pledge of $1 million to indie bookstores in the US. (The Bookseller)
- Neil Gaiman & wife Amanda Palmer to be spokespeople for Indie First, the campaign to support independent bookstores. They challenge fellow writers to volunteer as booksellers in their favorite indie stores on Nov. 29. (I think I’ll check out the indie stores in my area and see if anyone has signed up!) (GalleyCat)
- Penguin Random House and Universal Pictures have agreed to a 2-year, first-look production deal. The deal gives Universal access to PRH’s current titles and backlist and would make Random House Studios a producer on future projects based on the publishing giant’s titles. (The Hollywood Reporter)
- John Green and Bill Gates Are Teaming Up to Bring Clean Water to Ethiopia. Green has asked his fan base, especially the “Nerdfighters”, for funding, and so far, they seem to be happy to help. (Time magazine)
- Is Bezos’ Super-Secret Campfire Cooling? Campfire is a think-tank-like event for authors sponsored by Amazon over the last several years. . . but the recent Amazon-Hachette dispute, regarding which a number of authors have spoken in criticism of Amazon’s tactics, may have had an effect on this year’s guest list. (GalleyCat, with links to several other articles)
Worth Reading/Listening to:
- Chocolate Wars, Mr. Pucker, and Being a Banned Books Test Subject. David Adams talks about reading Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War in seventh grade.
- Teaching Banned Books During Banned Books Week (Alexandra Svokos, The Huffington Post)
- A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Banned Books Week points out that banned book displays can sometimes have unexpected consequences. (Elizabeth Bluemle, Publishers Weekly‘s Shelf Talker blog)
- Banned Books by the Numbers. Huffington Post offers six infographics on banned books, with commentary.
- Romance Unlaced: Beyond Britain’s Shores. Author Madeline Hunter talks about historical romance set outside of Great Britain, mainly in Europe and Asia (she does not go into America as a setting.) (USA Today)
- Did You Think I Wouldn’t Notice? A nice discussion of literary allusions in books and movies, by Terri of Second Run Reviews, guest-blogging at the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
- Neil Gaiman: Terry Pratchett isn’t jolly. He’s angry. The Guardian has printed an excerpt from Gaiman’s foreward to Pratchett’s new nonfiction collection, A Slip of the Keyboard.
For Writers & Bloggers:
- Ingrid Sundberg creates a “color thesaurus” for writers. (The image above is one of twelve, posted on her blog.) (via GalleyCat)
Book Announcements:
- James Dashner will write a Maze Runner prequel, while Sophie Kinsella tackles YA. (GalleyCat)
- September Book Adaption News (books into movies), on BookRiot.
Awesome lists:
- Read 14 Great Banned & Censored Novels Free Online: For Banned Books Week 2014. (Links to Kindle formats, online versions, and even, in one case, an audio recording.) (Open Culture)
- The 12 Weirdest Reasons for Banning Science Fiction and Fantasy Books (i09)
- Banned to the Big Screen: 10 Great Banned Books Adaptations (Kristin Fritz, Word & Film)
- Book Fetish: Banned Books Week Edition. BookRiot features swag and art inspired by banned books.
Bookish Quotes:
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.
abibliophilesstyle
Ooh, the color thesaurus is awesome! I sent the link to a friend who’s a writer. 🙂
Bea
Love the color thesaurus, it has so many uses. You did a super job rounding up articles about banned books. 🙂
Rita_h
So many good links you posted that I just read and enjoyed. And that quote by Patrick Rothfuss– awesome!
Thanks so much for all your hard work putting this together. I really appreciate it.
Katherine P
Great post! I love all the banned book info!
Stephanie Shepherd
It is so easy to get sucked into these post for hours just reading! I can’t imagine how much time it takes to put together! I especially enjoyed the post on allusions and the color thesaurus. Thanks for pulling this all together!
Jan @ Notes from a Readerholic
You have so many great banned book links this week, Lark. This is an important topic and I missed it this year. Last year I read two banned books for the week. I am always so amazed when I see the lists of banned books. Some I’m not surprised about, but others are totally puzzling to me. Now I have to go and follow some of these links!