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
- Yuval Noah Harari admits approving censored Russian translation of Sapiens in order to get the book past Russian censors. Censorship in Russia is an issue for other authors, too–and the authors don’t always know until it’s too late. (The Guardian)
- Harlequin restructures, lets longtime editorial directors go. (Publishers Weekly)
- Amazon Q2 Results: 20% Revenue Jump, Smaller Profit Increase (Publishers Weekly)
- Scholastic’s Earnings Take Big Hit in Fiscal 2019 (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Katherine Rundell writes about writing and reading children’s books as an adult, and offers 5 kids’ books every adult should read. (The Guardian)
- From Black Panther to Tade Thompson: why Afrofuturism is taking over sci-fi (Adam Roberts, The Guardian)
- Caliban Never Belonged to Shakespeare: What Shakespeare’s “Thing of Darkness” Tells Us About Gatekeeping and Language …and colonialism and diversity and racism. (Marcos Gonzalez, Literary Hub)
- Why Don’t I Read All My Books? Karen Olsson writes about her unread books. (Literary Hub)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
Levar Burton reads Goodnight Moon to Neil deGrasse Tyson
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
RO
I agree totally with your ending meme(lol) That’s the pits about Harlequin. Levar Burton is still doing his thing. Hope your weekend is amazing! Hugs, RO
RO recently posted…SOME USELESS STUFF
Lark_Bookwyrm
Well… it’s better for my book-loving soul, but not necessarily for my overall health! I love LeVar Burton’s voice. He can read to me anytime.
Nicole
I love listening to LeVar Burton read. I got an audiobook of Sagan’s Contact mostly because LeVar was the narrator.
I fully agree that children’s books are still important to adults. I don’t fully agree with their list, though, because I couldn’t stand His Dark Materials and don’t think it should be required reading for anyone. 😉 (I’m torn about the new show of it. Love some of the actors, looks like it could be fun, but I hated the books so…)
Nicole recently posted…Limerick Linkity
Lark_Bookwyrm
I couldn’t get into His Dark Materials when I tried reading them, but I have no idea if that was because of the books or because of my mental/emotional state at the time. I’ll try again someday.
Oh, and I had no idea LeVar Burton had read Contact! I read the book decades ago…
Nicole
Oh – sorry! LeVar read Cosmos, not Contact. I wrote the wrong one initially.
I will likely try the His Dark Materials show, but I have no desire to try the books again and see if it was just my mood at the time. I trust you get me’s judgement on that particular front. 😉 Some books I question but not this one. I was too vehement.
Nicole recently posted…Limerick Linkity
Lark_Bookwyrm
Oh, Cosmos! I loved the show, but never read the book, beyond browsing and looking at the photos. As for His Dark Materials, I wasn’t suggesting you revisit them, only that I might. I may still dislike them, but I can’t be sure because at the time I tried to read them, I was in the worst years of both thyroid-gone-haywire and anxiety disorder (yes, the conditions were related.) So I don’t trust my negative responses to any books I read during that period of my life.