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
- September is Libary Card Sign-Up Month (ALA)
- Tennessee mom calls Henrietta Lacks book “pornographic”; seeks to have it banned from school. (LA Times) Just in time for Banned Books Week, too. And while we’re on the subject of censorship…
- [BookRiot’s Kelly Jensen and the Charlston] Public Library Fight Against the Censorship of Some Girls Are (GalleyCat, with lots of links to the story’s sources)
- Pottermore is getting a radical new redesign, and will lose the gaming elements of the current version. (The Bookseller) That’s going to outrage the site’s current fans, but may bring in new users who lacked the time or interest in going through the site linearly, one book at a time, as they had to do. However, it does sound to me like it will be more of a wiki, and there is already at least one of those out there. A Pottermore fan discusses the pluses and minuses of the changes on Mugglenet.
- Apple will seek a Supreme Court review of the e-book price-fixing case, but it’s not clear if the Court will take up the case. (Publishers Weekly)
- The 2015 National Book Awards longlists were announced this week. (National Book Awards website)
- Amazon integrates Goodreads into UK devices (The Bookseller)
- Author Cornelia Funke Launches Own Publishing Company after differences with her U.S. publisher over her latest book. (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading
- The Regency Romance: How Jane Austen (Kinda) Created A New Subgenre. This might be more accurately subtitled “How Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer Created a New Subgenre.” But it’s intelligently written and well worth reading. (Kelly Faircloth, for Pictorial)
For Writers & Bloggers
- Witch Week is coming! Hosted by Lory at Emerald City Book Reviews, Witch Week “is a celebration of our favorite fantasy books and authors” (not necessarily witch-related) and runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5. “This year the theme is ‘New Tales from Old’ … fiction derived from fairy tales, folklore or myth.”
- It’s not too soon to sign up for the HoHoHo Readathon in November! Hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Jennifer @ Book Shelfery, the HoHoHoRAT is a chance to wallow in holiday and/or winter-themed reading for six days: Nov. 12 – 17.
- Wattpad Has a New Program to Help Writers Get Discovered (GalleyCat)
Book & Movie Announcements
Illustration by Jim Kay
- The new illustrated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone comes out Oct. 6, and Jim Kay’s illustrations are really wonderful. Check out a preview here. If you’re in the UK, here’s the link for Bloomsbury’s edition, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. (Frankly, I’d rather have that one. Does anyone know how to order British editions if you live in the U.S.?)
- Disney plans another Mary Poppins movie set 20 years after the original, and using storylines from P. L. Travers’s books. Don’t be fooled by The Guardian article’s headline; if you read the story, it’s clear this is not a remake.
- Here’s the final trailer for The Martian:
Awesome Lists
Really Cool / Just for Fun
Orcs Of New York (screenshot)
- Have you seen the Orcs of New York posts on Facebook? College Humor has collected a slew of them. This one in particular tickles my fancy.
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review
Yay for Witch Week! Getting excited.
I know they tried to put a stop to ordering UK editions from Amazon at one point, due to the Harry Potter craze. But at Book Depository they don’t seem to care. Maybe try that? (It’s on pre-order status at the moment.)
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review recently posted…New Release Review: Girl Waits with Gun
Red Iza
Thanks for the censorship links, they’re very interesting, we had the same problem in France with a children album last year… Great bookish quote, enjoy your new books 😉
Red Iza recently posted…Review / Donna Cummings : Bad ex karma
R_Hunt @ View From My Home
I read the article about Cornelia Funke and thought, good for her! They’re censoring her creative process and her new publishing company sounds like fun! I should try to buddy-read one of her books with one of my grandkids.
I read the Regency Romance link with great interest. I hadn’t seen these around before. Love that H Potter illustration too. Good post, thank you, Lark.
R_Hunt @ View From My Home recently posted…Weekly Wrap-Up 9/19/15
Bea @Bea's Book Nook
Another day, another book challenge, aargh. I am fortunate to have had parents who didn’t restrict my reading. My mother generally knew what I was reading and often shared books with me but never was I told I couldn’t read a book.
Another good roundup of links!
Bea @Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…Bea Reviews Mama’s Right Here by Susan Kerner