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
- Plagiarism software pins down new source for Shakespeare’s plays—or, to be more precise, one probably additional source (The Guardian)
- OED’s new words include ‘mansplaining’ but steer clear of ‘poomageddon’ (The Guardian)
- The Lost Words campaign delivers nature ‘spellbook’ to Scottish schools. The book, a collaboration between poet/writer Robert McFarlane and painter Jackie Morris, contains poems and images celebrating nature and the everyday words used to describe it. In an increasingly urban world, words like “acorn” and “wren” are less and less part of many children’s lexicon. (The Guardian)
Worth Reading/Listening To
- Where are romance novels headed given the current state of women’s issues? (Chicago Tribune)
- Charting the Geography of Classic Literature explores maps of fictional worlds. (Atlas Obscura)
- To My Fellow Hogwarts Houseless: You Are Not Alone is about more than just Harry Potter fandom. It’s about different ways of loving and interacting with fictional creations without necessarily embracing the trappings of fandom. (Laura Sacton, for Book Riot)
- Tamora Pierce Writes One For The Boys (But Just One) In ‘Tempests And Slaughter’ (Interview on NPR)
- Coffee Or Tea: In Dickens’ World, It Might Be A Choice Between Good And Evil (Nina Martyris, for NPR)
Awesome Lists
- The 5 Best Audiobook Narrators (In My Humble Opinion) (Book Riot)
- For February, 3 Swooningly Romantic Reads (Maya Rodale, for NPR)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Paula Bardell-Hedley
I’ve always had a soft spot for Snoopy and his sidekick, Woodstock! ?
Lark_Bookwyrm
I thought that was a good bookmark for right before Valentine’s Day, since loving books is something every bookworm (or bookwyrm) has in common!
Paula Bardell-Hedley
Yes, it was spot on!
Lark_Bookwyrm
🙂
Nicole
Yay Snoopy!
I’ve wondered about the future of romance for a while. I suspect it will evolve to suit the changing landscape, though. It has been starting to move in that direction even if there are still some problematic areas. I found this quote interesting: “the best way for us to resist was for us to tell stories where we win”.
Nicole recently posted…Linkity for 11 February 2018
Lark_Bookwyrm
I found that article so interesting! I’ve noticed the changes in the romance genre over time; I think all of us who read the genre have. As you say, the landscape—our expectations about what is healthy and acceptable in a relationship, and about women’s role in both relationships and society—has changed. There are a lot fewer problematic areas in romance now than there used to be 20 or 30 years ago, in terms of consent and character agency. I didn’t really start reading romance until the late 1990s, and didn’t discover some authors until much later than that. As I’ve discovered new-to-me authors, I’ve tried some of their backlist books, written in the ’80s or earlier. I’ve found that I don’t always enjoy them because sometimes the implicit or explicit assumptions and attitudes about things like women’s roles and abilities, women’s agency, and consent, which presumably were acceptable when the book was originally written, get my modern, egalitarian hackles up.
Mary @StackingMyBookShelves!
I like Snoopy and Woodstock – they make such a great pair!
Lark_Bookwyrm
They do!