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
- Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel prize in literature 2017 (The Guardian)
- Hachette folding Weinstein Books in wake of Harvey Weinstein sexual harrassment/assault scandal. (Shelf Awareness; also Publishers Weekly)
- California bookstores offering help to children affected by California fires (Shelf Awareness)
- Frankfurt Book Fair: Catalonia Independence Vote Rattles Publishing, not least because several prominent Spanish-language publishers are based in Barcelona. (Publishers Weekly)
- U.S. Bookstore Sales Dropped 10.9% in August, in part due to strong sales last year for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the lack of a comparable bestseller this year. (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- The Ripped Bodice bookstore presents ‘The State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing 2016’ – open the PDF to see the report, presented as a series of infographics.
- What Makes Us Automatically Quit a Book examines a number of readers reasons for a DNF. (Book Riot)
Book & Movie Announcements
- Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is in development as a feature film. Mr. Ford wrote the first two drafts of the screenplay, which have been handed off to a writing duo he approved. The rights were aquired by producer Diane Quon, and George Takei is the executive producer. (I heard about this from Mr. Ford when he visited my local library this week. Deadline reported it in early September.) Ironically, Mr. Ford blogged in 2014 about why the book would not be adapted for film, citing Hollywood’s reluctance to adapt the book without a white male lead and drawing a comparison to the lack of Wonder Woman adaptations. Three years later, how things have changed!
- A Paddington Bear animated series is in development by Studiocanal. (Deadline)
Awesome Lists
- 31 Amazing Literary Halloween Costumes (Book Riot)
- The Scariest Middle Grade Books (or at least, the scariest recent ones) (Book Riot)
- Only Bookworms Have Done At Least 24/36 of These Things (Buzzfeed). 34 and a half, here.
- Great Books About Amazing Girls (Book Riot)
- 11 of the Most Instagrammable Bookstores in the World (Bustle)
- 25 Books People Will Reread Again and Again (Buzzfeed) This list is a very strange mixture of classics and familiar titles, and books I’ve never even heard of. Note: For the US-based James Herriot fans among us, If Only They Could Talk and its sequel, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet, were published in the US as All Creatures Great and Small. (Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s not a new Herriot title!)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Angela
I only got 19 on the Buzzfeed list! Oh well… :-/
Angela recently posted…Review: The Summer House
Lark_Bookwyrm
Maybe that’s a good thing? Means you’re more well-rounded?
Angela
Haha, maybe!
Angela recently posted…Review: The Summer House
Lark_Bookwyrm
🙂
Bea @Bea's Book Nook
Dang, I would love a new Herriot book. Ah well. I got 31 on that Buzzfeed list. I still need to read that State of Diversity report. I’ve seen bits tweeted out but I want to read the whole thing.
Bea @Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…Bea Reviews Snappsy the Alligator and His Best Friend Forever, Probably by Julie Falatko, Pictures by Tim Miller
Lark_Bookwyrm
The diversity report isn’t very long; you can probably skim it pretty quickly. As for the Buzzfeed list, I’m betting most book bloggers score extremely high on that one!
Tanya @ Girl Plus Books
My husband is sitting here laughing at me because I just got 34/36 on that Buzzfeed list. LOL I don’t think either of us were surprised. 🙂 And that quote from Anne Patchett… YES! Love that one.
Tanya @ Girl Plus Books recently posted…The Sunday Post #77
Lark_Bookwyrm
That Buzzfeed list is right on target for me, too! 😀
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review
The ONLY bookworm thing on that list I could say I haven’t done is “judge someone for arranging their books aesthetically rather than practically.” I think everyone should get to arrange their books however they want!
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review recently posted…Classics Club: Excellent Women
Lark_Bookwyrm
That was my “half.” My wanna-be-librarian’s soul used to cringe at the the idea of arranging your shelves by color. I didn’t judge the people, but the concept was a big NO. But I’ve come around on that one, as I’ve seen how beautiful those shelves can look. I still couldn’t do it with my own shelves, but it does look fabulous when it’s done well.
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review
I definitely would not do it either, because I would have a hard time finding things, but it’s fun to look at aesthetically arranged shelves.
I might judge people for buying books just for decoration and not for reading, I suppose. Although even then I would just think they were missing out on half the fun.
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review recently posted…Classics Club: Excellent Women
Lark_Bookwyrm
Good point!