News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Bookish News
- Shirley Jackson Awards nominees announced. The awards are for “outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic” in a variety of categories (novel, novella, short story, single-author collection, etc.)
- San Diego Comic-Con: The Show Must Go On(line). Plus, the future of Comic-Con (and cons generally) in a not-quite-post-pandemic world. (Publishers Weekly)
- ‘Books galore’ among thousands of unsold items destroyed by Amazon [UK] each week (The Bookseller)
- New York Legislature Passes Library E-book Bill – the second state to do so. (Publishers Weekly)
- English Heritage recognises Blyton and Kipling’s racism – but blue [historical] plaques to stay. However, the heritage organization’s website is being amended to reflect changing views of these and other writers. (The Guardian)
Worth Reading/Listening
- ‘Most of Australia’s literary heritage is out of print’: the fight to rescue a nation’s lost books. “When they realised even Miles Franklin winners can be sent to the pulp pile, authors, librarians and academics began building a digital ark for bereft books.” (The Guardian)
- On Houghton Mifflin Fading Away – Will especially appeal to Tolkien fans. (Kenny Brechner, Publishers Weekly)
- Caring for Your Books and Papers (Victoria and Albert Museum) is useful for anyone who wants to keep their beloved books (and photos and important documents) in good shape — or just wants to know why paperback books yellow and lose their pages so quickly.
- The rise of BookTok: meet the teen influencers pushing books up the charts (Alison Flood, The Guardian)
- A Devaluation of Young Adult Literature in academia (Kenny Brechner, Publishers Weekly)
For Writers and Bloggers
- Split infinitives: the English ‘rule’ that refuses to quietly die (The Guardian). I’ve always thought that the no-split-infinitives rule is ridiculous and leads to some very awkward constructions. Why is it wrong to simply split an infinitive? 😉
Books, Movies, and TV
- Good Omens is going beyond the book? That’s not a bad sign. “While Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett never wrote a sequel, they did sketch out a plot that will now form a second season. If they wanted to continue the story, I want to watch it.” (Alison Flood, The Guardian)
Lists
- The Best History Books: The 2021 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
- Children’s books roundup – the best new picture books and novels (The Guardian)
- 10 of Britain’s best indie bookshops (The Guardian). Live in the UK, or planning a trip there? Check out these bookshops.
- 10 Charming New England Bookstores Worth Planning a Trip Around (Tiny Trips) Can’t get to Britain? Try these New England bookstores instead.
Books On Sale (U.S.)
- Black Sun (Rebecca Roanhorse), $1.99 – Kindle; Nook; Kobo
- Chasing Cassandra (Ravenels series #6, by Lisa Kleypas), $1.99 – REVIEW – Kindle; Nook; Kobo
- Get a Life, Chloe Brown (Brown Sisters #1, by Talia Hibbert), $1.99 – REVIEW – Kindle; Nook; Kobo
- O, Jerusalem (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes #4, by Laurie R. King), $1.99 – Kindle; Nook; Kobo
- The Religious Body (Inspector Sloan #1, by Catherine Aird), $1.99 – REVIEW – Kindle Daily Deal
- White Lies (Arcane Society #2, by Jayne Ann Krentz), $2.99 – Kindle; Nook; Kobo
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
I’ll be curious to see if the ComicCon (and other convention) decisions on how to move forward make it more or less likely that I will attend. I’ve always “wanted to want to” go to ComicCon, but it was too packed for my tastes even before you take the pandemic into account. I’m not sure what would make me finally decide to go vs. accept that I will never go, but I’m still going to be curious to see what they decide on.
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday ~ More Freebie Fiction
Lark_Bookwyrm
I’m glad that I got to go to some SF cons when I was young (mostly Balticon and Unicon, a Silver Spring/Washington DC-based con in the ’70s and ’80s.) Back then, I had the energy to deal with staying up 3/4 of the night, and several tall, staunch male friends to protect me from unwanted attentions and preserve some personal space around me if I was having trouble with the crowds. (I don’t handle crowds well.) These days, I don’t think I could handle the crowds or muster the energy for a full day of wandering the venue, so I will probably never go to Comic Con. I might try a standard SF con if it’s ever safe to be in crowds again. (I’m vaccinated, but not liking what I am reading about the Delta varient outbreak in widely-vaccinated Israel, nor what I am beginning to hear about fully-vaccinated people here getting it.)