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
- Ancient Egyptian works to be published together in English for first time (The Guardian)
- Amazon plans to open bookstore in Chicago (Chicago Tribune)
- Navy Seal memoirist must pay U.S. government $6.6 million for breaking confidentiality (The Guardian)
- Truman Capote’s ashes go up for auction (BBC)
- Donald Trump [may have] used campaign funds to buy $55,ooo worth of his own book (The Daily Beast)
- The Hugo Awards were announced last weekend. If you’ve been following the Sad & Rabid Puppies saga, suffice it to say that while they influenced and in some cases dominated the nominations, by and large their slates did not win. The Best Novel went to N. K. Jemisen’s The Fifth Season; Best Novella to Binti by Nnedi Okorafor; Best Novelette to “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang and Ken Liu; Best Short Story to “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer; and Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) to The Martian (screenplay by Drew Goddard; directed by Ridley Scott.) Andy Weir, author of the original novel The Martian, won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. (Tor.com)
Worth Reading
- Read this Baton Rouge school librarian’s impassioned plea for books to replace those lost in the flooding. (Note: As of Friday, the school’s first wishlist has been filled; they’re starting on round 2. But I’m also sure that there are other schools in Louisiana in similar straits, so if you’d like to help out, you might try Googling and contacting schools directly, or checking on GoFundMe and other crowdfunding sites.)
- Genre readers have less empathy? I’m not feeling that (mystery author Val McDermid, for The Guardian)
Book & Movie Announcements
- Fascinating, a picture-book biography of Leonard Nimoy by his friend, poet/author Richard Michelson, will be released Sept. 6. The book is illustrated by Edel Rodriguez. (Richard Michelson’s website; also Amazon and Goodreads)
- Voynich Manuscript to be published by Spanish firm Siloe. The manuscript, which is held by Yale’Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, is rare—and unreadable. It’s written in an unknown code or encrypted language that has never been cracked, and the illustrations show plants and constellations that simply don’t exist—at least, not on this planet. Siloe will publish a limited number of replica copies. (NPR; also The Guardian)
- Disney, Sam Mendes discuss live-action James and the Giant Peach (Deadline)
- Anne of Green Gables is coming to television—again. The “series will honor the foundation of the book, but will incorporate new adventures reflecting themes of identity, sexism, bullying, prejudice, and trusting one’s self” (Deadline), so purists like myself may not be happy with how it deviates from the original books—not unlike the 1980s miniseries starring Megan Followes. The first of those stayed close to the book, but the second and third took considerable liberties.
Awesome Lists
By Quotesburg, on etsy.com.
- 27 Literary Prints to Hang in Your Home Library (BuzzFeed)
- 15 Sweet Kid Lit-Inspired Cakes (BookRiot)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
- Want to learn to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs? Or maybe your interests lie more with Old Irish, Sumerian, or Old Norse. Lexicity is the first online resource for learning ancient languages, including Akkadian, Mayan, Church Slovanic, and Ethiopic as well as the more well-known ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Clicking on a language takes you to lists of dictionaries, grammars, texts, and other resources.
Bookish Quote
Quote from an ancient Egyptian text (16th century B.C.E.)
That’s it for this week!
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
No new themes in Anne!! There’s enough in there that applies today that we don’t need to change it to make it more socially conscious. This makes me sad. I didn’t mind the change in the Meghan Follows mini-series (except for the 3rd. I pretend that monstrosity didn’t happen) because it felt Anne-ish. I’m not happy about this. That is so cool about the Ancient Egyptian works in English! I’m fascinated with Ancient Egypt so I’ll be keeping an eye on what kind of new resources are available!
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…52 Pins in 52 Weeks – August Edition
Lark_Bookwyrm
I loved the first Anne miniseries, was somewhere between OK and annoyed with the second, and didn’t even watch the third because it was so obviously not following the books. The ancient Egyptian literature sounds really cool to me, too.
Danya @ Fine Print
Wow, Ancient Egyptian works being published in English! That makes me so nostalgic for my childhood, because I was obsessed with Ancient Egypt as a kid.
Oh my gosh, don’t even get me started on the second and third Anne movies starring Megan Followes. I’m not exactly a purist, but if you’re going to take liberties they should at least offer something extra/more that the original didn’t. I’m tentatively excited for the Netflix adaptation!
Danya @ Fine Print recently posted…Review: Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal
Lark_Bookwyrm
The Egyptian literature thing is really cool, isn’t it?