News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Events
Today is Free Comic Book Day! Here’s a list of comics to look for (via BookRiot). Here’s a list of all the comics available, and here’s a store locator so you can find the nearest participating shop!
Book News
- The 2015 Agatha Award winners were announced at this year’s Malice Domestic convention, which took place last weekend. Winners include Dreaming Spies (Laurie R. King) for Best Historical Mystery and Long Upon the Land (Margaret Maron) for best contemporary. You can see the full list of nominees and winners at the Malice Domestic website.
- The NRA Reimagines Fairy Tales with Guns (Liam Stack, New York Times) And if that troubles you as much as it does me (or even if you think it’s a great idea), read Kristen McQuinn’s “Why Putting Guns in Fairy Tales Defeats the Purpose of Fairy Tales.” (BookRiot)
- Data-Driven Publisher Inkitt Signs First Predicted Bestseller with Tor (digital book world)
- Sales, Earnings Drop at HarperCollins (Publishers Weekly)
- Michigan couple won’t be jailed for lost & overdue library books (GalleyCat)
Jim and Joyce Lavene
Literary Losses
Jim Lavene, who wrote mysteries with his wife Joyce, passed away suddenly on May 5. (Joyce died last October.) The duo wrote a number of cozy mystery series, including the Renaissance Faire, Retired Witches, and Peggy Lee Garden mysteries. They also wrote as J. J. Cook and as Ellie Grant. (source: Facebook) You can learn more about the Lavenes’ books at their website.
Worth Reading
- New Research Shows Audi0books Have Powerful Impact on Literacy Development (The Booklist Reader)
- Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously (Vellum) A strong warning about Apple’s overreach with the Apple Music service. (tldr: Back your music files up somewhere other than your own harddrive; Apple can and apparently has wiped reams of music files from people’s personal computers.) [Note: There’s a photo of a hand flipping the bird in this post. I know that may offend some people, but if you use iTunes and Apple Music, I urge you to read the article anyway.]
- Inside stories from a prison book group (Emily Rhodes, The Guardian) looks at the impact books can have on prisoners.
Great Blog Posts
- Making Fun of the Romance Reader points out the popular tendency to do so, with particular attention to the Sally Field movie My Name is Doris. (Romance Novels for Feminists blog)
- SF/F Being Awesome: Books for Kids (Jim C. Hines’s blog) takes a look at the Baltimore Science Fiction Society’s program to get books into the hands of kids who can’t afford them, through school library contributions.
- Fun at the Folger, Part 1 and Fun at the Folger, Part 2. Mya Gosling at Good Tickle Brain got to visit the Folger Library and even enter the vaults and see (and touch!) a Shakespeare First Folio.
For Writers & Bloggers
- How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book? (An infographic from Reedsy)
Book & Movie Announcements
- Rick Riordan previews Magnus Chase: The Hammer of Thor wtth an interview and excerpt on Entertainment Weekly
- Sir Ian McKellen Releases New Apps to Make Shakespeare’s Plays More Enjoyable & Accessible (OpenCulture). This app—the first one is for Hamlet—makes me wish I had an iPad.
- Disney plans live-action sequels to Jungle Book and Mary Poppins (Variety)
Awesome Lists
- 15 Slightly Odd Things All Book Lovers Have Done (BuzzFeed)
- 100 Must-Read Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novels By Female Authors (BookRiot) I’ve read surprisingly few of these—only 14. However, since there’s only one book by each author listed (usually the first and not always the best, so beware), I’ve actually read 20 of the authors on the list… which leaves me with a lot to explore.
Really Cool / Just for Fun
A tiny house owned by April Anson has bookshelves under the loft ladder.
- Book Storage in Tiny Houses (BookRiot)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review
I’ve read 24 of the SF/Fantasy list – I need to look into some more of those authors. With only one book per author, they could perhaps more logically have called it “100 must read female SFF authors” and included one representative book each. However you organize them, I love lists – thanks for sharing.
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review recently posted…Reading New England: Vermont
Lark_Bookwyrm
You’re doing better than I am—and I thought I was a fantasy reader! I agree that it should probably have been a list of must-read authors rather than books, especially because the book listed isn’t always the author’s best. 🙂
Got My Book
So, I am hoping that we are going to end up being blog friends *fingers crossed*.
1) I love what you are doing with this Feature! I am already doing some of this in my Sunday Summary (which will debuts tomorrow) and had to delay a 2nd Feature that will have other parts of this (it wasn’t ready and I didn’t want to delay my whole Phase 2 launch). Thankfully mine won’t be exactly the same, since I’m not up for another redesign right now.
2) I appreciate the heads up on the Apple Music link (Such warnings are something else that I am doing; and I was wondering if more people would be offended by the warning than the material.)
Lark_Bookwyrm
I was so appalled at the Apple Music overreach, I had to post that link. 🙂 Good luck with your features!
Lark_Bookwyrm
By the way, I visited your blog and tried to comment, but I don’t want to sign in using my (personal) Facebook account, and BookLikes isn’t letting me set up an account with them. Or rather, they keep telling me that they’ve emailed me an access code, but I haven’t received it, and it’s not in my spam folders either. I’m sorry! I’ll try again later.
Got My Book
Thanks for trying. I am able to see your comment for my TTT list (http://gotmybook.booklikes.com/post/1396944/musings-ttt-2016may03) but Booklikes email system has been having problems all week, which is very frustrating.
I didn’t even install Fb comments until I figured out how NOT to use my personal account. For anyone who doesn’t know, you click in the comment box and then when the extra stuff appears, you click the down arrow to the left of the post button to select your page.
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thank you; that’s helpful to know!
Rita @ View From My Home Journal
Wow, I hope they don’t guns in fairy tales, but I won’t even want to open the article to read it, so I’ll take your word for it.
So sad about Jim Lavene– I didn’t know Joyce had already passed. They were so prolific as cozy and light-hearted writers.
I’m off to check out the SFF female authors’ list now. Thanks for sharing it and all your other fun and interesting news. Happy Mother’s Day to you!
(p.s.- I’ve moved my blog)
Rita @ View From My Home Journal recently posted…Random Thoughts: Marcia Clark, Traditional Foods, Ancestry
Lark_Bookwyrm
The NRA really did add guns to fairy tales. Instead of teaching kids to use their brains to deal with dangerous or frightening situations, just shoot the Wolf or the witch or whatever. It seems like a terrible message to send: if you don’t like a situation, shoot someone.
I was sad when I heard about Jim Lavene. Joyce’s death hit him hard; at least they are together now. But I’m sad for their family.
Happy Mother’s Day and congratulations on the blog move! I’ve already followed on Bloglovin.
Got My Book
I added one of the links you mentioned to my Sunday Summary this week and credited you. http://gotmybook.booklikes.com/post/1391479/sunsum-2016may08
Got My Book recently posted…text: Highs & Lows While Blogging | Sunday Summary #1
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thank you!