Citizen Reader

Now, here we go! Here's the Millions' preview of nonfiction books for the second half of 2016. There are entirely too many books of interest here to discuss more fully, but please note the Shirley Jackson biography in September (I can't WAIT) and Robert Kanigel's Eyes on the Street, about Jane Jacobs.

Barnes & Noble will sell both print and ebook versions of self-published books in its stores.

Sherlock on the BBC: Get ready for Season 4!

A new Lionel Shriver novel is out. Her We Need to Talk about Kevin gave me nightmares, but I do think she's an interesting writer.

Exactly how often are the words "wife" and "daughter" being used in book titles anyway?

"Game of Thrones": won the Emmy noms battle.

Which states listen to the most audiobooks?

Oh, you've just got to love New York's Strand Book Store, don't you?

Helen Gurley Brown, author of Sex and the Single Girl: was she a feminist? Again, this is some interesting book writing in the New York Times. It's a review of two new bios of the author and longtime Cosmopolitan magazine editor, and it gives you a feel for both books, and even a bit for Brown herself.

The new Librarian of Congress, for the first time ever, is a black woman. So of course NOW they're limiting the term of this job to ten years, rather than just keeping it a lifetime appointment.

Infinite Jest at twenty years old.

Gore Vidal's novel Burr is a bestseller again, 43 years after it was first published. Christ, I'm sick of the Founding Fathers. I know it's not hip to say that right now but Alexander Hamilton? I used to appreciate you as the best-looking dead white man on our currency, but now I WEARY OF YOU.

Here's a shocker: in addition to all the other hardships involved with poverty, it's also hard to become more literate when you live in book deserts.

A crowdfunded memoir has won Britain's PEN Ackerley award.

MobyLives on what else? Amazon and "the dread Bezoki."

Yeah, I know we're not supposed to say anything bad about any authors, but this notice that James Patterson is the third highest paid celebrity in the world still makes me cry a little. It's because he can do no wrong, monetarily speaking.

Of course Winnie the Pooh was voted kids' favorite character!

J.R.R. Tolkien: Poet?

August 2016 LibraryReads. Again with no nonfiction. LibraryReads list, you continue to bore me.

NPR has done something interesting here, making recommendations to movies and other media based on books.

You know, this article about Ramona Quimby (and her creator, Beverly Cleary) and a new novel about similar characters (by a man) and the new Ghostbusters movie rambles a bit, but it's still kind of an interesting read about what happens when men write women, rather than women writing women.

So clearly there's money to be made in books somewhere: U.S. publishing earned $28 billion last year. But why are ebook sales dropping?

Are there really only six kinds of story?

Bernie Sanders will write a book. Whatever. Bernie Sanders is dead to me. At least he hasn't yet handed over his email list, though, so that's something.

And, here it is, your Obligatory Neil Gaiman Link: Neil Gaiman's Forbidden Brides to Receive Comic Adaptation.