Citizen Reading: 30 January 2017.
30 January 2017
A weekly selection of reading and book news, sometimes with completely inappropriate commentary.
Why you shouldn't fear academic essay collections. (I think the first thing they should do is stop calling them "academic essay collections"--snore!) This is actually an article for writers, about how to get into such collections, but it's an interesting one for librarians to read too, to remember these types of titles. They don't get a lot of press.
"Placemaking and the Public Library."
The Milos Yiannopoulos Kerfuffle continues: Roxane Gay has pulled her book from Simon & Schuster in protest.
The latest surprise bestseller? George Orwell's novel 1984.
Time for Oscar displays!
How to help readers spot fake news.
Fun: How Hollywood has changed the way everybody talks.
Oh god, another day, another thriller with "girl" in the title. I weary of thrillers.
7 podcasts to get hooked on in 2017. I don't really listen to podcasts but I admit I'm tempted by "The Hilarious World of Depression."
Justin Cronin's novel The Passage to be adapted for television.
Wisconsin true crime. Not a fun list, but in case you know any True Crime readers, it might do to familiarize yourself with some of these high-profile cases. Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance? I know no one really wants to read about Jeffrey Dahmer, but you simply must consider the graphic novel My Friend Dahmer.
Amazon makes Europe a new ebook offer.
Why will the physical book endure? Boy, my attention span is SHOT lately. This article isn't even that long, and I really am interested in the subject matter, but I can't get myself to settle down and read it. I don't know--I like The Millions, and yet most days I feel I'm just not smart enough for it, and that's the feeling I get just looking that essay over. I'll have to go back to it when I am capable of reading more than tree paragraphs in a row.
Emma Tennant: Obituary. Vicki Lansky: Obituary.
Just for fun: The odd jobs of 7 writers.
George R. R. Martin is becoming the new Neil Gaiman; he's just constantly in the news. He's now promising to release a new Game of Thrones "story" this year.
The New York Times has eliminated a number of its bestseller lists.
"All right, let's talk about the Oscar nominations." Full list of nominees. (Related: Screen Actors Guild Awards: Winners.)
2017 ALA Youth Media Awards: Winners. (These include the Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners.)
Carnegie Medals for Excellence: Winners. And even more ALA award winners are here.
CWA Diamond Dagger winner: Ann Cleeves (who I now know thanks to my British TV obsession).
The National Magazine Awards have quietly dropped their prize for fiction.
The Man Booker Prize will be unaffected by the merger between sponsors The Booker Group and Tesco.
NONFICTION BOOK NEWS
I must have it: a new book about Dorothy Day.
A new book about our old way of living.
Wanna read a biography of President Obama, by a fan of Barack Obama? You've got at least three new choices.
Is social media "making the young less happy"?
Mary Berry has a new book out!
Two new books about Emmett Till and his father.
New York Times: a new Robert Kaplan book, about American and geography and globalism;a new selection of Gay Talese nonfiction; hey, all you BBC Sherlock fans, a new book about Arthur Conan Doyle; Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain and the "fight over American imperialism"; novelist Sheila Kohler recalls her relationship with her sister in a memoir.
Another nonfiction "it" book of the year: The Little Book of Hygge.
The New York Times reviewed this one last week, and here is the Christian Science Monitor's take on The Book That Changed America.
BOOK LISTS
IndieBound: bestselling books the week of Jan. 26.
Publishers Weekly: Most anticipated books of 2017. I cannot wait to get the Joan Didion; the More Alive and Less Lonely: On Books and Writers by Jonathan Lethem looks good too.
9 gothic novels less than 40 years old.
11 books to "help prepare for our coming post-apocalyptic future."
Sports Illustrated: 7 best health books for 2017.
MY READING NOTES
You know, I was very excited to get Keith Houston's new book The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time, but once I started it, I just wasn't in the mood.
I just laughed when I went to the library and saw one of the books on hold for me: Robert J. Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth--it's 652 pages long, and it's dense. There's no way I'm going to be able to read it now, although I really want to; it looks good. I think I got it off a list of "Best Economics Books of 2016" or something. It's about the rise in living standards and life expectancies in America between 1870 and 1970, and how that type of growth and that number of advances aren't really something we can count on happening in perpetuity, which seems like a thoroughly logical thought to me. I really do want to get this one back sometime. Perhaps for next Christmas when I'm at the in-laws'.
I read a few of the essays in Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living, edited by Manjula Martin, and found them interesting. Most surprisingly, I enjoyed the interview with Cheryl Strayed, about how much money she makes and how she made it; I am not really a Strayed fan, but I enjoyed her straightforward answers. A good collection, I think, but I just don't have the time or inclination to read the whole thing right now. If you head over to Reading the End at this link, Jenny's got a couple of good links there to other stories about this book.
AND NOW, YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK
No news this week, but if you're wondering how long you have to wait until his new book, you can check out the countdown on his website!