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
- ‘Dash it all’: unseen Agatha Christie letters reveal author’s temper (The Guardian) Actually, they reveal a lot about her relationship with her publisher, which was largely cordial.
- Milo Yiannopoulis labels low sales figures of [self-published] Dangerous memoir “fake news” (The Guardian) He claimed he has sold 100,000 copies, but sales figures indicate it’s more like 20,000.
- Heavy monsoon rains cause extensive damage to Phoenix public library (azcentral.com) This hurts my book-lover’s soul. Note: If I hear about a fundraiser to help with repairs, I will pass it along.
- Chawton, Jane Austen’s “Great House,” launches fundraising appeal to stay open (The Guardian)
- Sherman Alexie cancels book tour, “haunted” by mother’s “ghost” (The Guardian)
Worth Reading
- Rick Riordan’s Stonewall Award acceptance speech, in which he discusses why he writes diverse characters. It’s a brilliant and moving speech, and my respect for him has gone to a whole new level. (Rick Riordan’s blog)
- The Rare-Book Thief Who Looted College Libraries in the 80s. Including mine—Oberlin College’s Mudd Library—while I was in school there. I remember William Moffatt, Oberlin’s director of libraries, as a gentleman and a scholar. (Atlas Obscura)
- How Deadlines Put My Reading Habits Into Overdrive. Literally. (Book Riot)
- Forget George Eliot: Now it’s male authors disguising their sex to sell more books (The Guardian). Then read this response (Hey fellas, we’re not here for your ambiguous pen names) from a Book Rioter.
- 8 Reasons People Mock Romance. The genre, not the experience. (Book Riot)
- Tessa Dare’s response to the notion that romance readers need to be “challenged.” (Tessa Dare’s twitter, via the tumblr Romance Is My Anti-Drug)
- My bookshelf says who I am — and a Kindle cannot do that. (Patrick Barkham, The Guardian)
- New Favorite Theory: David Bowie Went to Hogwarts. (Emily Asher-Perrin, for Tor.com) Silly fun or a great new fanfic theory, depending on your level of immersion in the HP fandom. Hey, I would totally read a David-Bowie-is-a-wizard fic, and I’m not even into David Bowie!
- Word Wealth: My Best Friend and Nemesis. (Book Riot) I wish I’d known about this book when I was teaching… though I think the Wordly Wise series I used was excellent, especially for younger students.
- Science and Science Fiction: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly looks at SF’s often-negative portrayal of science. (Nancy Kress, for Tor.com)
- Consider This Permission To Keep All Your Books (Book Riot) I see her point and this is much the way I’ve approached my books over the years (except mailing them!) But I don’t think most of the people who write about keeping or collecting books realize just how big that collection can grow over the decades. In my 30s, even my 40s, we were able to keep adding bookcases, but there’s really no more room.
For Writers & Bloggers
- How Pro Writers Deal With Pro Criticism (Kameron Hurley, SF writer)
Book & Movie Announcements
- There’s a new adaption of Little Women coming from the BBC and MASTERPIECE. The cast includes Dame Angela Lansbury as Aunt March, Michael Gambon as old Mr. Laurence, and Emily Watson (The Theory of Everything) as Marmee. The four girls and Laurie have also been cast. I can’t wait!
Awesome Lists
- 100 Must-Read Books of U.S. Historical Fiction. (Book Riot) Wow, I’ve read only 6 of these. . .
- The Ultimate Guide to the Independent Princess (Mighty Girl) There are multiple pages of the list, so make sure you look at the later pages, too.
- 21 Gorgeous Ways to Organize Your Books Any Book Lover Will Love (Gurl.com) Well, lot of these examples have more accessories than books on the shelves, but there are still some good ideas about arranging your shelves to be aesthetically pleasing. Just ignore the word “organizing”—this is about decorating, not organizing.
- 27 Female Authors Who Rule Sci-Fi and Fantasy Right Now (Entertainment Weekly)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
- Like Reading Rainbow for adults: LeVar Burton has a new podcast where he reads to adults. Like, real full-length short stories, read in their entirety. That is so cool. (Yes of course I subscribed.)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Stephanie @ Don't be Afraid of the Dork
A particularly eclectic list of links this week! David Bowie at Hogwarts (I would also read this:)! Male authors disguising their sex! Book looting!
I was also really interested to see the big long list of American Historical Fiction! I’ve only read about 15 and they were all really good, which leaves me with 85 to check out. It will be a good resource for recs!
I was also interested to see that BBC is doing Little Women! Should be really good.
Stephanie @ Don’t be Afraid of the Dork recently posted…Saturday in the Garden | On Sunday
Lark_Bookwyrm
I know—I just kept coming across really interesting posts and articles. You’re in better shape than I am with that American Historical Fiction list. I was kind of embarrassed. But then, I do tend to gravitate toward historical mystery and historical romance rather than straight historical fiction—though I do enjoy the latter as well.