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
- Banned Books Week begins September 26! Jason Reynolds is this year’s honorary chair. There are several events occuring on Twitter or live on Facebook; you can see the schedule here. Speaking of banned books…
- Pennsylvania school district reverses ban on books by [and about] authors of colour (The Guardian) The extremely long list of resources “frozen” by the Central York School District included picture books that should have been far from controversial, such as Hair Love (Matthew A. Cherry) and Sulwe (Lupita Nyong’o), as well as Malala’s autobiography and beginner books about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. Basically, if it was by or about a person of color, the title was “frozen” until it could be “reviewed”, regardless of the book’s content. (There is a long and informative article by the Washington Post on this incident and the wider hysteria about critical race theory.)
- In-Person National Book Awards Called Off (Publishers Weekly)
- Lawmakers Question Big Five Publishers Over Their Library E-book Practices (Publishers Weekly)
- Covid-19 Forces ALA to Make Inaugural LibLearnX Conference Virtual Only (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Times Are Changing: COVID-19 and Library Late Fees (Book Riot)
- In Defense of Labels: On Genre as a Literary Conversation: Lincoln Michel Considers the Expansive Power of Genres (LitHub)
- Index, A History of the, by Dennis Duncan – scholarly anarchy (review). Duncan’s book on the history of the index looks quite interesting… at least to me as an indexer!
- Will the Foundation Series Finally Do Justice to the Novels of Isaac Asimov? Jay Gabler Tells a Long, Sad Story of Failed Sci-Fi Adaptations (LitHub)
- The Good Fight: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror 2021–2022 looks at the recent trend of “hopepunk” in SFF. (Liz Scheier, Publishers Weekly)
- How Are Romance Covers Made? (Book Riot)
For Writers & Bloggers
- When should writers return to old, abandoned work? (The Writer)
Books, Movies, and TV
- Around the World in 80 Days is becoming an 8-part TV miniseries starring David Tennant. The production is by the BBC, co-produced by PBS’s Masterpiece. The trailer is above. I can’t wait! (Collider; also Deadline)
- Netflix acquires works of Roald Dahl as it escalates streaming wars (The Guardian)
Cool, Fun, and Awesome
- A house fit for Disney’s Winnie the Pooh in the original Hundred Acre Wood – aka the ‘Bearbnb’. (Airbnb) I am so down for this! Alas, they are only booking UK residents.
RO
Wow! That Winnie the Pooh spot looks fabulous! I would adore staying there to get away and read. Hope you’re doing well, and sending lots of hugs, RO
Lark_Bookwyrm
Me too! I wish it had been available when we took Robin to England about 20 years ago. It would be a magical place for a child. We did visit the 100-Acre Wood and played Poohsticks from the replica of the original Poohsticks Bridge.
Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra
The Bearbnb has got to be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!
Lark_Bookwyrm
It’s adorable!