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
- Texas Libraries Hit Hard by Hurricane Harvey (Library Journal) And Florida libraries are likely to be hit hard by Irma.
- A shooting at a NM public library left 2 dead on August 28. (CNN)
- B&N Has a Plan for the Future: More [and Smaller] Stores (Publishers Weekly) But their sales are down more than 6% for the first quarter of fiscal 2018.
- Staunton, VA, gears up for its annual Harry Potter festival, a themed weekend likely to attract 5,000 to 10,000 visitors (including me, if I’m lucky.) (WTOP) Also check out the festival website.
- EveryLibrary Kicks Off Library Awareness Campaign in U.S. (Publishers Weekly)
Literary Losses
Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics and other works, died Sept. 6, 2017, of cardiac arrest. She was 82. Sexual Politics, first published in 1970, had a profound influence on feminist thought and the women’s movement. She was also known for her outspoken critique of sexism and patriarchy in literature which, like her theory of patriarchy generally, remains relevant today.
Obituaries and tributes: The Guardian; Jezebel; The New Republic
Bibliography and Biography: Goodreads; Wikipedia
Worth Reading
- All the awards for young writers amount to discrimination, says author Joanna Walsh. Not every author begins writing or a writing career before age 40. The good thing is, there’s an easy fix: just change the word “young” to “new” in the guidelines and restrictions for awards and residencies. (The Guardian)
- A librarian thinks about library security in the wake of the Clovis, NM, library shooting. (Book Riot)
- Reading YA Readers Where They Are: Online (Publishers Weekly)
- Bookstores do well selling more than books. From pins to wands to socks to board games, bookstore owners are finding that products other than books sell well–especially if they reference books or pop culture. (Shelf Awareness)
- 5 Black-Owned Publishers You Should Know About. The article begins with a discussion of why this matters: “the publishing world is heavily biased toward white men.” (Book Riot)
For Writers and Bloggers
- Book doulas: the new way to push your writing into the world (The Guardian)
- The Blog Ahead Challenge starts on Oct. 1 and runs for the entire month of October. The goal is to get ahead by creating and scheduling as many blog posts as you can for a month or more in the future. In other words, you create posts for November and beyond; anything that posts during October doesn’t count. Sign-ups are now open. (Hosted by Anna of The Herd Presents, who also runs the blog Herding Cats & Burning Soup.)
Awesome Lists
- Recommended Children’s Books About Hurricanes (ThoughtCo.)
- 11 Books Like Wonder Woman To Read After Watching (and Re-Watching) The Movie (Bustle)
- 20 Back to School Romance Novels featuring teachers, students, and/or governesses. A diverse list of contemporary and historical romances, some with LGBTQ characters and/or POC characters. (Book Riot)
- 15 of the Best Audiobooks for Younger Children, like Winnie the Pooh, The Runaway Bunny, and Kevin Henkes’s Chrysanthemum. (Book Riot)
- 10 Ways to Know You’re a Goodreads Member. I plead guilty to at least 6 of these! (Goodreads blog)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Angela
I love that quote – it really is so true for us book lovers!!
All these natural disasters are so hard to hear about – it hurts my heart that people lose their homes, all their belongings, sometimes even their lives. And then there are the losses in the community as a whole, like the libraries. It’s something we might not think about at first, but it definitely happens.
Angela recently posted…Review: Into The Water
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thanks—I like that quote too, and I was excited to find such a great background for it.
The floods and other natural disasters are very hard to read about. I feel so badly for all the people hurting in the aftermath. But I take comfort from the response of people who help in so many ways, from donating money to literally wading into floodwaters to rescue people. And I post some of these links in hopes that those of us who can will help out, in whatever ways we can.
Aleen @ Lampshade Reader
Such sad news everywhere lately. Thanks for listing all these interesting articles.
Aleen @ Lampshade Reader recently posted…Sweet Sacrifice by L.D. Rose
Lark_Bookwyrm
Well, it’s not all sad news, but that seems to be dominating these days, particularly with all the natural disasters. I’m glad you enjoyed the articles, though.
herding cats
Thank you for the event shout out! Hope you’re doing well this week!
herding cats recently posted…{Meme-age} I My Have Slipped & a bit of a Blogger Throwback
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thanks, Anna!
kimbacaffeinate
I like the idea of smaller stores for B&N. My problem with them is that their books are cheaper on their online store. Sometimes significantly. I wanted to buy a children’s book for a gift and looked it up online at B&N. When I went to the store it was 11.99 more! That is not chump change.
kimbacaffeinate recently posted…An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn
Lark_Bookwyrm
Whew, that’s a significant price difference! Ouch!