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
- Carla Hayden sworn in as Librarian of Congress. (The Guardian, with interview. Also of interest: The Baltimore Sun)
- Napoleon’s failed novel ms. goes up for auction on Sept. 21. (The Guardian) Yes, that Napoleon.
- Banned Books Week is coming up — Sept. 25 to Oct. 1. (ALA)
- Lionel Shriver’s Address on Cultural Appropriation Roils a Writers Festival (New York Times) For another take on Shriver’s speech, read Jim C. Hines’s blog post about it.
- Little, Brown Launches Award for New Illustrators — and they’re stressing diversity. (Publishers Weekly)
- The 2016 Man Booker Prize shortlist is out. (Man Booker) A judge talks about the books and the process at The Guardian.
- The 2016 National Book Award longlists are out. (National Book Foundation)
- Gene Luen Yang and the Children’s Book Council launch the “Reading Without Walls Challenge”, a library- and school-based initiative to get kids to read more outside their comfort zone, exploring unfamiliar formats and topics and reading about characters who differ from them. Yang is National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a prize-winning author/artist for his Boxers & Saints graphic novel duo as well as for American Born Chinese.
For Writers & Bloggers
- Need to get ahead on your blogging? Take the Blog Ahead Challenge (hosted by Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup)
- Increase Readership & Engagement with a Wrap-up Post (Jeanene @ Got My Book)
- Want to make the most of your blogging time? Check out Six (Book) Blogging Time Savers (Lectito blog)
- Rock the Blog– Creating Page Anchors (linking to a point farther down a blog post) (Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup)
Great Blog Posts
- Thoughts from a Reader-Girl: Were books better back in the day? Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup wonders whether there are more meh romance novels published these days, and if so, why.
- Under-Appreciated Bookworm Talents (Cait @ Paper Fury)
- Our Book-Lending Horror Stories (BookRiot)
- Ten Things I’ve Learned From Television (Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library)
- Roald Dahl Made Me a Better Read and a (Slightly) Less Annoying Kid (Trisha Brown @ BookRiot)
Can you help?
- Danielle’s senior project/thesis is an ethnography of the online romance community, and she needs romance readers to fill out her survey. If you read romance on a regular basis, she would love to have you answer some questions as anonymously as you like. (You have to give a name, but it can be a nickname or use-name.) The questions are interesting; some of them made me really think about my own attitudes and experiences as a romance reader.
Literary Losses
Llama Llama author Anna Dewdney passed away on Tuesday, Sept. 6, of cancer. She was 50. Rather than a funeral service, Dewdney requested that friends and family read to a child. (Obituaries: Publishers Weekly; Washington Post)
Book & Movie Announcements
- BBC America Brings Destroyed ‘Doctor Who’ Episodes Back to Life (BBC America) They plan to produce an animated miniseries of the 6-part sequence, “The Power of the Daleks.”
- ‘Missy Piggle-Wiggle’ Brings Magical Cures To The Modern World (NPR) Yes, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books are getting a modern reboot. I loved those books, but it’s true, they probably need updating… all those white, stay-home moms and free-range kids.
- Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time will feature actors of color. The Murrays will be portrayed as a mixed-race family, with Storm Reid now cast as Meg. The “witches” will be diverse, and a nonwhite actor is being sought to play Calvin. Well done, Disney! (Hollywood Reporter)
- Star Trek: Discovery has been pushed back to May 2017. (StarTrek.com)
Awesome Lists
- In honor of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, here’s “50 Years of Star Trek People Drinking Coffee.” (Tor.com)
- 16 Books That Perfectly Match New York Fashion Week Looks (Buzzfeed)
- 14 Books to Get You In the Mood for Fall (Book Bub blog)
- 18 Confessions Only True Book Lovers Will Understand (Buzzfeed)
- 33 Impossibly Cute Ways To Cover Your Body In Books (Buzzfeed)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
source: Norton Critical Editions infographics
- The Periodic Table of Literary Villains, courtesy of Norton Critical Editions. Click the image to see a larger (and zoomable) version.
- How Long Did It Take To Write the World’s Most Famous Books? is an infographic by printerinks.
Bookish Art
Free poster for the Reading Without Walls initiative
That’s it for this week!
Berls
Took the survey – wow, really makes you stop and think, huh? I realized that I don’t like people who don’t read romance that much because they can be such Jenks lol!
So sad about the author of Llama, Llama! My kids love her books 🙁
Berls recently posted…Do you agonize over emoticons?
Lark_Bookwyrm
It is sad about Anna Dewdney. The books are really cute, though I never had a chance to read them to Robin; she was probably too old for them by the time they were published.
Rita @ View From My Books
What a great post today! So many good links to check out, and I will this morning.
I just loved the discussion about Lionel Shriver’s speech and read Jim Hines’ blog post. Food for thought! I think the single main idea I took away from it all was in a sentence from Hines– drastically paraphrasing here, folks– you can write about any other type of race, religion, culture… what have you… but you have to be willing to allow criticism if you do it sloppily or arrogantly… this was definitely a paraphrase, refer to Hines’ original post for the exact quote (I lost track of it at the moment). I get a bad feeling about Ms. Shriver from her speech, and will not be picking up her newest book, that’s for sure.
Rita @ View From My Books recently posted…Subgenres of Suspense to Look For this Year
Lark_Bookwyrm
That point stood out to me as well. One of the things I like about Jim Hines (besides his books—the Libriomancer/Magic Ex Libris series in particular) is his championship of diversity, equality, and social justice. From his gender-swapped cover art project several years ago (designed to point out the sexualization of women on SF/F covers) to his efforts to provide a forum for diverse voices to share their thoughts and personal experiences as writers and readers, he has been an ally and supporter of women, minorities, and LGBQTIA in SF/F and in the wider world. And he puts his writing where his mouth is, so to speak. He’s not afraid to “test” his own fiction against the standards he espouses, and will admit when he has fallen short. It’s why I follow his blog instead of just reading his books (which I would do anyway, as they are always entertaining and thought-provoking—and frequently funny.)
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
I love the idea of an update on the Miss Piggle-Wiggle books! I read one to the Tornado a few months ago and while he really enjoyed it it felt very dated. I do hope they don’t lose the common sense of her advice in the update though. I was so saddened to learn of Anna Dewdney’s passing. The Llama Llama books are some of our absolute favorite and I have Llama Llama Red Pajama memorized because I’ve read it some many times. Thanks for the mention! Now off to fill out the romance survey. It sounds fascinating.
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…My Name is Lucy Barton – Review
Lark_Bookwyrm
Another Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan, yay! I loved them as a kid, but yes, they’re very dated now. I never read the Llama Llama books to Robin; by the time the first one was published, she was already 11 and they were too young. But they do look adorable.
Emily Alfano
I really liked the comment/tip about blogging mindfully on Lectito’s blog! Thanks for sharing! I’ve found myself doing the same thing: wandering on other social media platforms, shopping for books, or reading other random articles online instead of typing up my blog post. What would take 10 minutes to type ends up being a two hour long process! And I feel like I barely accomplished anything! So i’m going to try blogging mindfully going forward.
Great post!
Emily Alfano recently posted…Review: The Iron Queen
Lark_Bookwyrm
Yes, I need to work on that, too. I get easily distracted into other social media sites, or just wandering around chasing interesting stuff as if it were butterflies. Speaking of which… I have a Sunday Post to finish. 🙂
anna @ herding cats & burning soup
Oh the periodic table of villains. I love that. Some interesting posts to check out now, too! Thanks for including mine in the links! Happy Sunday 🙂
anna @ herding cats & burning soup recently posted…Tag: The Cat Herder [Edition 22] — choking hazards, pervy dessert & lickable chests
Lark_Bookwyrm
You’re welcome! 🙂