News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff.
Literary Losses
Winston Groom, author of the novel Forrest Gump (later turned into a film starring Tom Hanks), died Sept. 17 at the age of 77. In addition to several novels, Groom wrote a number of nonfiction books, both histories and biographies. As a young man, Groom served in Vietnam, an experience reflected in several of his books including Forrest Gump.
Obituaries and tributes: Deadline; The Guardian; NPR; New York Times; Shelf Awareness
Biography and bibliography: Goodreads; Wikipedia
Bookish News
- Print Units Post Double-Digit Gains at the End of September (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading/Viewing/Checking Out
(not all book-related)
- One Romance Novelist’s Fight for Diverse Love Stories. A profile of author Alyssa Cole, the article also explores the confluence of race, racism, and romance novels, and discusses the RWA meltdown. (Rachelle Hampton, Slate)
- Book Bannings and Burnings in History (Freedom to Read) The impulse to control access to books and knowledge goes back to at least 200 BCE. Here’s a timeline of some of the best-known or most egregious examples.
- How COVID-19 is changing the English language (Fast Company)
Books, Movies, and TV
- Rick Riordan on Wrapping Up His Trials of Apollo Series, and what’s next for him and for the Percyverse. (Publishers Weekly)
- Star Trek: Discovery‘s third season will premiere Thursday, Oct. 15 on CBS All Access. I’ve been waiting for this for months!
- Susie Dent ‘gutted’ after new book Word Perfect printed with host of typos (Publishers Weekly) That must be every author’s nightmare. The book itself sounds like fun, though.
Of Interest
- Give up Google, don’t hit ‘accept all’: how to fight for your privacy (author interview with Carissa Véliz, The Guardian)
Bookish Quote
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits
Fascinating bit on how the pandemic is changing our language! I particularly like the German “panic buying” term: hamsterkauf.
And lately I feel like I *have* been buying all the books… 😉
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…Spooky Linkity 2020