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
- Goodreads’ new homepage design rolled out this week. (Goodreads blog)
- The Man Booker Prize longlist for 2016 was announced. (Man Booker Prize)
- Writers Organizations Condemn Turkish Attacks on Free Speech (Publishers Weekly)
- People who read books may live longer, according to a recent study. (New York Times blogs, citing a study in Social Science & Medicine)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Sales Top $2 Million in the first 2 days of sales.(Publishers Weekly)
- Forbes’ list of highest paid authors for 2016 includes James Patterson, J. K. Rowling, and Girl on a Train author Paula Hawkins. (If you want to see the whole list on a single page, see GalleyCat’s article.)
Worth Reading
- “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” (President Barack Obama, in Glamour)
- Write a House is Building a New Literary City in Detroit (Publishers Weekly)
- The Return of the Children’s Specialty Bookstore (Publishers Weekly)
Book & Movie Announcements
- BBC America debuted a sneak peak at Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency at San Diego Comic-Con. The show is based on the novel by Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams, and stars Samuel Barnett as Dirk Gently and Elijah Wood as his reluctant sidekick Todd. (via GalleyCat)
- HBO Confirms “Game of Thrones” Will End With Season 8 (Hollywood Reporter)
- Penguin Young Readers plans “Loop Day” celebrations in honor of Ransom Riggs’s forthcoming Tales of the Peculiar. (GalleyCat)
- J. K. Rowlings says she’s done with Harry Potter (though apparently not with the wizarding world.) (Vanity Fair)
- Michael Chrichton’s Dragon Teeth will be published posthumously in 2017. The novel, discovered in Chrichton’s files by his widow, fictionalizes the rivalry between real-life paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, as they hunted for dinosaur fossils in the 1870s. (Hollywood Reporter)
- Meryl Streep will join the cast of Mary Poppins Returns, playing Mary Poppins’ cousin Topsy. Emily Blunt will star as Mary Poppins; Lin-Manuel Miranda plays a lamplighter. (Variety)
- Benedict Cumberbatch is everywhere this year. The Sherlock Season 4 trailer was also unveiled at Comic-Con…as was a trailer for Dr. Strange.
Awesome Lists
- Book Recommendations For Your Hogwarts House (Book Riot)
- 16 Inspirational Quotes from Children’s Literature (AAA State of Play)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
- The Hero’s Journey in 6 popular movies: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone; Star Wars: A New Beginning; The Matrix; Spiderman (2002); The Lion King; and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. (infographic by Venngage)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
So much good TV! I can’t wait for the 4th series of Sherlock and Dr. Strange looks good too. I’m excited about Dirk Gently! It’s one of J’s favorite books and the preview looks fantastic! How am I going to have time to read with all this great TV?
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…Bon Appetempt – Review + Recipe
Lark_Bookwyrm
I didn’t have a clue that a Dirk Gently series was coming out until I saw the video. I haven’t read the book but the series looks like fun—if I can get past seeing Elijah Wood as Frodo all the time. 😉 I can’t wait for the new season of Sherlock, and despite some problems with representation, I’m really looking forward to Dr. Strange.