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
- Publisher plans no future editions of Cosby bio (AP via Washington Post)
- New Survey Shows eBook Buyers in the UK Outnumber Pirates By Fourteen to One (The Digital Reader, citing a British survey)
Worth Reading
- How One Law Banning Ethnic Studies Led to Its Rise [in high schools] (J. Weston Phippen, The Atlantic)
- Why Books are Comforting to Anxious People (Nicole Froio, BookRiot) Her explanation is spot-on. and puts into words what I’ve tried to articulate for years.
- The Therapeutic Effects of Reading Middle Grade Fiction as an Adult (S. Zainab Williams, BookRiot)
- The Magic of Being a Bookish Older Sister (Samantha Gualito, BookRiot)
Literary Losses
Award-winning author E. L. Doctorow, best known for Ragtime and Billy Bathgate, died July 21, 2015, at the age 84. Doctorow often mixed historical and fictional characters in his books, to the delight of readers and the chagrin of historians, but was widely recognized as a great American novelist. Obituaries: NPR ; The Guardian ; New York Times ; Washington Post
For Writers & Bloggers
- “Writing Full Time: Marie Brennan” talks about dealing with the isolation of being home all the time. (guest post on Jim C. Hines’s blog)
- IBM’s Watson can analyze your emails (or other writing) for tone. (Lit Reactor)
Great Blog Posts
- “Word from the Herd: Authors shouldn’t work for free… but Bloggers should?” asks Anna from Herding Cats & Burning Soup. And a whole lot of people answered!
- Ro asks about “Reading Books That Have Been Signed by the Author” on In the Know With Ro. Do you or don’t you?
Freebies & Bargains
- This week’s free SYNC titles (downloadable audiobooks) are March by Geraldine Brooks and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. You’ll need Overdrive Media Console to download, but it’s free.
- Amazon has over 40 Kindle beach reads under $2.99 today (Saturday) only – including titles by James Patterson, Debbie Macomber, Nora Roberts, Sherryl Woods, Julie Kagawa, Katie McGarry, Linda Lael Miller, Karen Harper, Brenda Novak, Stephanie Laurens, Sarah Morgan, and more. Most of them are $1.99.
Awesome Lists
- Fantastic Feminist Books for Young Adults (BookRiot)
- 9 Young Adult [fantasy] Titles That You Won’t Want to Miss This Fall (SF Signal)
- 9 Diverse Fantasy Books That Will Challenge Your Idea of Fantasy Fiction (BookRiot)
- 8 Weird Facts From the History of the Library (Jonathan Sturgeon, Flavorwire)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
Tote bag; graphics by Carol Oliveira
- Book-themed graphics by Carol Oliveira on shirts, totes, mugs at RedBubble
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Rita @ View From My Home
Goodness, great post today…where to start… after I spent so much time this morning reading 99% of your links and the comments left on the links–Anna @ the Herd alone had so many, and the responses were addictive! 🙂 The lists portion was fun to check out too!
As a person living with chronic depressive/anxiety disorder besides physical issues, and a parent of children dealt varying degrees of it, I was intrigued by the posts about rereading and anxiety, and reading MG books for therapy (that link didn’t work, so I had to google the article). It’s a well-thought-out and interesting correlation to be made, the effect of comfort reading on anxiety and what particular types of books to choose. Thanks for pointing it out.
I have recently given up dark psychological thrillers– which were my reading mainstay for so many years– who knows if I will pick them up again someday. I started reading light romantic suspense, contemporary small-town romance, fantasy, memoirs, police/legal procedurals, and cozy mysteries. I guess we have somewhat similar taste, though I still read grittier titles than you seem to. If you wonder how I can read the non-cozy mysteries and detective stories still, it’s because I love to use my brain to pick up on the clues and avoid the red herrings and hopefully see justice be done in the end. I get a rush from them, but still find it more impersonal and non-threatening than psychological thrillers, which jump out at me and present art-imitating-life situations.
A long-winded comment to say, yes I agree with you and those articles, and though I find my attention wandering when I attempt children or MG titles (just my personal taste) I am gravitating towards lighter reading fare, with your blog & Katherine Pitts’ blog as great motivators to do so. Thanks once more.
Rita @ View From My Home recently posted…Wordless Wednesday- 7/22/15
Lark_Bookwyrm
What a wonderful and thoughtful comment, Rita! I’m glad you’re venturing out into lighter fare because it’s lovely to have a real range of things to choose from, depending on your mood and (in my case and perhaps yours) anxiety level. I find I do much more rereading when I’m under stress or more anxious, and more new-to-me reading when I’m feeling good. Same with genre; I read more romance, MG books, and light cozies when I’m anxious or stressed out, because they’re relatively predictable, and venture into more serious mysteries and deeper fantasy when I’m doing well.
And thank you for the lovely compliment… and I love Katherine’s blog, too. For that matter, you have piqued my interest about some of those more psychological thrillers, and I may get a little bolder next time I’m feeling pretty relaxed – further than Krentz and Nora Roberts thrillers, at least!
Rita @ View From My Home
Thanks for the reply, and I don’t want to be accused of giving you nightmares, so maybe I won’t share those thriller titles, lol 😉
I will say that I am now open to rereading a favorite book in the near future, but I need to find one first that I will enjoy a second time (not mysteries, because satisfying my curiosity the first time kind of ruins it for any other times). But I am open to choosing another genre and keeping it handy for those times I want a comfort read.
Rita @ View From My Home recently posted…10-Second Review: Broken Promise
Lark_Bookwyrm
No worries about the recommendations – if I choose to read a book and it gives me nightmares, it’s on me, not whoever recommended it! 🙂 I’ve gotten fairly good at spotting that something’s going to trouble me by reading the blurbs and dipping into the book here and there.
Bea @Bea's Book Nook
As always, a great post. There are so many links to check out but two in particular caught my eye, the one on anxiety and the signed books. The anxiety one is relevant for myself and several friends while signed books one boggles my mind. Why wouldn’t you read the book? I need to read the article and see if it makes any sense.
And now, back to review writing. 🙂
Bea @Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…Soapy Saturday June 25th, 2015 – Melt and Pour Bases
Lark_Bookwyrm
I’m glad you found some interesting links! The anxiety one explains perfectly what I’ve tried to articulate to myself and others and never quite felt I captured. As for reading signed books – it’s more about whether you would read the signed copy, or keep that copy pristine and read a different one. Having had my signed Anne McCaffrey paperbacks become more and more worn from frequent rereading when I was young (and could only afford one copy!), I now incline to the “buy a different copy for reading” school of thought. 🙂
anna (herding cats & burning soup)
LOL totally chuckling on the bag. That last quote. Hmmmm I’m liking that. Definitely need to set some more books free 😉
Thanks for the post shout out, Lark!
anna (herding cats & burning soup) recently posted…Quote-tastic/Review–Miss me?!–The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward
Lark_Bookwyrm
Sure thing, Anna! And I’m glad you like the bag – she has a lot of other great quotes and graphics on bags, pillows, and such. Some are series-specific, like “I only date half-bloods” or “I only date Shadowhunters”. Others are more general. I’m eying a few of them and thinking of Christmas…
kimbacaffeinate
Great posts this week Lark, I’ve read a few of them. Did you hear anything about another Harry Potter book? Maybe you shared it last week and I missed it.
kimbacaffeinate recently posted…The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward
Lark_Bookwyrm
The latest I heard anything about a HP book was in April, when Rowling said she wouldn’t totally rule it out. But I got the sense she’s concentrating on Cormoran Strike and on the Fantastic Beasts movies, for which she’s writing or collaborating on the screenplay. I googled but didn’t find anything more recent. If you come across what you found, I’d love to see it!
Jan
So many good links here, Lark! The bookish quote is great. I missed the Kindle sale of beach reads on Saturday. (We had company staying the weekend at my daughter’s…so fun, but I didn’t use my computer!) Oh well, I have plenty to read.
Jan recently posted…Sunday Post: Jul 26
Lark_Bookwyrm
I was kind of surprised that was only a one-day sale, TBH. I picked up about 5 books, blowing my resolution to cut back pretty much to smithereens. 🙂 Glad you liked the quote. I need to find some time to make a few more of those!