News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff.
NOTE on paywalls: Publisher’s Weekly and The Guardian may require you to sign up for a free account in order to read their content.
Bookish News
- Louisiana Supreme Court Revives Librarian Amanda Jones’s Defamation Suit (Publishers Weekly)
- Demand Soars for Book by Bishop Who Confronted Trump at a national prayer service. (Publishers Weekly) Note: If you missed this story, you can hear her full sermon here on YouTube. (The portion directed specifically at the newly-inaugurated president, pleading him to have mercy on those who are afraid, begins around 12:21.)
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has a consulting deal with Skyhorse Publishing. (Publishers Lunch; scroll down to the last entry.)
- Why A.J. Brown reads on the sidelines, explained: All about the book that inspires Eagles WR (USA Today)
- The Literary Landscape and Response to the Los Angeles Wildfires: Book Censorship News, January 24, 2025 (Book Riot) I debated whether to put this in “Bookish News” or “Worth Reading,” because it contains links and information that fall into both categories. Just read it, and check out the links. At the bottom, the same article contains links to recent book-banning news.
- Thousands of romantasy fans make midnight dates with new Rebecca Yarros novel (The Guardian)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- It was a town’s only Black-owned bookstore. It is now a refuge for those displaced by the California fires (The Guardian) “Nikki High’s Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena was spared by the fire, but touched by change, it became a hub of relief.”
- Once dismissed as frivolous, ‘romancelandia’ is getting political (The Guardian)
- Book Bans Harm Kids (Scientific American) This opinion piece by the editors of Scientific American is a bit late in the day. I mean really, book bans have been in the news for years now; it took them this long to decide to say something? But hey, at least they’ve finally said something.
- Trying and Failing to Figure Out “Escapism” in Books (Molly Templeton, Reactor) “What I keep coming back to is that escape is not necessarily disengagement. Escape is not, to borrow Tolkien’s word, desertion.”
- FanFiAddict held a free, online fantasy “TBRCon” this week, and you can still watch all the panels—many featuring well-known fantasy authors like Travis Baldree, Aliette de Bodard, Stephanie Burgis, Rin Chupeco, Sarah Beth Durst, T. Kingfisher, Mary Robinette Kowal, Malka Older, Christopher Paolini, Cat Rambo, and Django Wexler—on their YouTube channel, for free.
Reviews and LitCrit
- ‘She couldn’t walk, she couldn’t talk’: music therapy helped Joni Mitchell recover from a stroke – could it ward off depression and dementia too? (The Guardian) On David Levitin’s new book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord (published in the UK as Music as Medicine), and the ideas and studies Levitin explores in it.
For Writers & Bloggers
- Microsoft 365 now comes with “CoPilot” AI. Here’s how to switch back to a subscription without it.
- The Strunk cost fallacy (Sentence First blog)
Books, Movies, and TV
- Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Adaptation for Netflix Gets Imax Release (Variety)
- The Children of Blood and Bone Movie Adaptation Has Cast Four Excellent Stars and an Incredible Ensemble (Reactor)
Book Lists
- 30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025 (Reactor)
- 20 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Look Forward to in 2025 (Literary Hub)
- Your Most-Anticipated Queer Books of 2025 (Book Riot)
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