News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Literary Losses
NAME, short bio
Obituaries and tributes: The Guardian; Los Angeles Times; NPR. Bibliography and Biography: Goodreads; Wikipedia
Bookish News
- HarperCollins and the HC Union reached a tentative agreement this week. (HC Union press release; NPR; Publishers Weekly) The deal, reached by representatives of HarperCollins and the union with the aid of a federal mediator, still must be accepted by the union’s members.
- Codebreakers find and decode lost letters of Mary, Queen of Scots (CNN)
- Egyptians offered loans to buy books as inflation soars (BBC)
- Penguin Random House Prepares to Rebuild. The restructuring comes after a federal judge ruled against PRH’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster. (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Ron DeSantis’ academic restrictions show he hopes to change history by censoring it (Francine Prose, The Guardian)
- Bullying Librarians Is for Know-Nothings (Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation) The GOP attack on libraries.
- How Barnes & Noble Came Back From Near Death (Ezra Klein, New York Times) Also, Barnes & Noble saved itself by putting books first. Imagine that. (LA Times) (Note: the NYT article may be behind a paywall, depending on how many articles you have read this month.)
- Inside Book Twitter’s Final(?) Days (Sophie Vershbow, Esquire) The importance of Book Twitter, and what happens if Twitter fails.
For Writers & Bloggers
- If you’re a writer (or want to be), check out Writing Excuses, a podcast about writing hosted by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and (beginning in Season 6) Mary Robinette Kowal. Although the podcast is aimed at aspiring writers of science fiction and fantasy, it is useful for writers in any genre. They dig into the nuts and bolts of writing, look at aspects of getting published, and invite various guests (usually writers) to share their own experience and expertise.
Lists
- Must-Read Romance Novels Coming Out in 2023 (BookBub) The list is heavily weighted toward contemporary romance, but there are a few romantic suspense novels and a few historicals on the list as well.
Bookish Quote
Wendy
That is great news about the tentative settlement for Harper Collins. It’s inexcusable how they treat their employees while making huge profits. As always, this is a newsy post!
Wendy recently posted…Book Review: Maame by Jessica George
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
I’m really hopeful about the HarperCollins strike news! I hope this gets finalized and is good for the workers.
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday ~ Free Short Fiction for Valentine’s Day