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
- The National Book Award Finalists (shortlist) were announced this week. The winners will be announced on Nov. 16, 2016. (National Book Foundation)
- Iranian judges sentence writer to 6 years jail for short story about stoning to death (The Guardian)
- Amazon introduced Prime Reading, which looks like a free, “lite” version of Kindle Unlimited. You can read on Kindle devices and on Android and iOS devices via the Kindle app. The selection appears quite limited; there are only a few books and magazines I would like to read. However, I’ll keep an eye on it, since I got the impression the books will change from time to time.
- Hatchette & BookTrack Are Bringing Soundtracks to YA Books (GalleyCat)
Literary Losses
Gloria Naylor, author of the National Book Award-winning novel The Women of Brewster Place and other works, died of a heart attack on Sept. 28, 2016, at the age of 66. Naylor’s novels inspired a generation of black women authors, several of whom credit her with “giving me permission to write my truth.” She was living in the Virgin Islands at the time of her death. Obituaries: Ebony (which broke the story); Los Angeles Times
Worth Reading
- Cory Doctorow’s “In Praise of Fanfic” was written almost 10 years ago; if you haven’t read it yet, you should. (via Locus)
For Writers & Bloggers
- Lola’s Ramblings: Do You Check Your Spam? A very timely question, given my own and several other bloggers’ recent experiences with Akismet labeling regular commenters’ comments as spam. (Lola’s Reviews)
Book & Movie Announcements
- Megan Whalen Turner talks about her Queen’s Thief series in advance of next May’s publication of Thick as Thieves. (Publishers Weekly)
- “Lost” performance of Maggie Smith in Zeferelli’s Much Ado About Nothing “painstakingly restored.” In 1967, Franco Zeferelli directed a television adaptation of Much Ado for the BBC, starring a young Maggie Smith as Beatrice, Robert Stevens (later her real-life husband) as Benedick, and early appearances by Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon. The performance was thought lost until a copy turned up in Library of Congress in Washington, DC. It has been restored by the BBC and was shown earlier this year at the Barbican Theatre in London. Sadly, it’s only available to those in “formal UK education.” (BBC)
- Dark Horse To Publish The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars (GalleyCat)
- The Harry Potter movies are coming to IMAX – for one week only, beginning Oct. 13, at selected IMAX theaters. (Variety) I would so go to this if I didn’t have three weeks of work to do by the 17th.
Bookish Quote
Print by Nafftastic. £8.00 on Etsy
That’s it for this week!
Rita @ View From My Books
I hear you about the Prime Reading idea. We’ve had Prime membership for the past few years, even as the price has crept up, because of the quick and free 2 day shipping (having most family members scattered cross country it makes sense) and we watch Prime streaming shows.
Hubs told me about this as if it was some exciting news, and I spent about an hour skimming through all the selections and found not one I would read (there were a few good titles for me, maybe about 5, but I’d read them already). This is just my opinion, of course, but these titles didn’t work for me. If you check, they’re almost all self-pubs by Amazon’s publishing companies. It doesn’t affect our membership, just bummed me out when I thought they were offering a new perk I would enjoy.
Thanks again for this weekly news installment; I read it every Saturday morning with my coffee, even if I fail to leave a comment sometimes 🙂 I appreciate your hard work!
Rita @ View From My Books recently posted…Random Thoughts and Bookish Links
Lark_Bookwyrm
I had the same reaction, Rita: initial excitement, followed by disappointment. We have Prime also, originally for the shipping but now also for Prime Video. It’s how I’ve been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.
And thank you; I’m glad you enjoy this feature!
Stephanie
I am intrigued by Prime Reading but think the books I’ll be interested in will be few and far between. We’ll see how it develops and I do appreciate the extra perk!
I was super excited when I saw your note about the restored Maggie Smith Much Ado – it sounds amazing!! But then only available in Britain…Wah wah…
Stephanie recently posted…REVIEW | Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
Lark_Bookwyrm
I know; I was so disappointed not to be able to see that Much Ado! And I agree about Prime Reading. I will keep an eye on it, but I’m not impressed with the book lineup so far.