Citizen Reader

A weekly selection of reading and book news, sometimes with completely inappropriate commentary.

On "the rise of social reading." I found this article super depressing. Anyone else? (Or am I proving this author's point that reading and sharing online is taking away from the time we have available to read something in a more solitary and detailed way?)

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness is back...and she'll be BACK with a new book per day for 100 days! (That link is to her blog; her 100 books for 100 days are at her Instagram account.)

Marvel's vice president of sales suggests the comic book company's sales are slumping due to their increased attention to diversity. Or, I don't know, could it be that Marvel is now simply pumping out more superhero product than even the most dedicated of comics fans can possibly have money to buy and time to read? Nothing against comics (although they're not really my thing), but honestly, trying to keep up with comics news is unbelievably hard. They seem to create like twenty new characters and storylines per day. (Yeah, I'll admit. I'm totally sick of superheroes. They're so BORING. It's right in their name. They're super. Is it really that hard to be a hero when you're super?)

Are you up for the Reading without Walls challenge?

Trend alert: Novellas are hot!

Amazon bookstores: Creepy. This should come as no surprise. Jeff Bezos is creepy, and so is his company.

Call for papers: The future academic librarian's toolkit.

Some reasons you can use if you're applying for audiobook grant money for your library.

On library fines and fees.

Library Journal webcast on Sleeper Hits for Summer 2017. It's free, and it's tomorrow (Tuesday, April 11).

Results of a reading survey, courtesy of Publishing Perspectives. I expected them to find that women read more than men, but I did not expect to learn that The Netherlands harbors the largest group of non-readers (in a tie with South Korea).

Joanne Kyger, "Beat generation poet": Obituary.

Like Eric Jerome Dickey? USA TODAY is hosting a live chat with him on April 18.

Netflix has ordered a third season of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Remember: Before "Boss Baby" was a movie, it was a picture book.

Society of Midland Authors: Awards for best books by Midwestern authors.

NONFICTION BOOK NEWS

An interview with Jessa Crispin about her new book, Why I Am Not a Feminist.

Rebecca Solnit has a new book of essays out.

I'd like to read this new history about Lenin, but my TBR list is out of control.

Oh gosh, when they get a little older, my boys are going to eat this book up with a spoon.

News about this book was all over my Yahoo page last week, because the only Internet links I click on are about the Royal family and most entertainment news. With enough frothy clicks I hope never to be served up actual real or political news again.

Naomi Klein will publish a book about Trump's politics.

Even news of sexual harassment case settlements can't dent Bill O'Reilly's stellar book sales.

"Telling Trump's story to children."

On the other hand, if you're interested in the inner workings of the White House, this might be the book for you.

A collection of stories/essays first told on the radio program The Moth is now being published as a book.

New York Times: Mary Gaitskill has published a collection of essays; Ron Powers has written a book about his sons' struggles with schizophrenia (I'll probably get this one even though it seems like it could be heartbreaking); a book how about how American health care became big business that I'd really like to read; a journalist spends a year celebrating all of the Jewish holidays; a history of "America's involvement in Asia and China"; two new books explore the furor over rape on campuses and how it can be a dangerous time for those wrongly accused of sexual assault (and here's another review of one of these books, the one by Laura Kipnis). Yeah. I don't even know what to comment there. I still rather feel that until all men have to stay in for one night per week on every campus and in every city in America, just so women could go out in peace (and yes, that would include a moratorium on dates), I'm not overly outraged about the "rape furor" on campus. That said, it is not good to be falsely accused in these days of the Internet keeping every single piece of your personal information alive for ever and ever. It's a tough one. I will probably have to read that Kipnis book just to better understand the subject.

BOOK LISTS

EarlyWord highlights some new Spring Book Lists.

GQ Magazine: Best Books of April. Actually, I want to read all of the books on this list. I really like GQ's books coverage.

"15 best books on fundamental analysis of stocks." Wow. Only for the most hardcore of business/investing readers. This list might be of interest to the more generalist business reader: 9 business books of 2017 that will change how America does business.

IndieBound: bestselling books the week of April 6.

PopCrush: Most anticipated YA books of April.

"Dishing up spring cookbooks."

Celebrate April as Poetry Month with these YA books.

The "best second novels of all time."

Amazon: Best Books of April.

Wow, who knew there were enough novels about phone sex to make a booklist of them? There are! (And, because I can't resist throwing this in there: Do you really need a wi-fi connected sex toy?)

MY READING NOTES

I started seemingly a million books this week and nothing stuck. I tried the novel Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse, by Faith Sullivan, and the essay collection, Things That Are, by Amy Leach, because I wanted to read a book published by Milkweed Editions, but neither of them were for me. Likewise, I started Kathleen McAuliffe's This Is Your Brain On Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society. I think it's an okay science book but I'm not in the mood right now.

I am sticking with Joan Didion's very short new collection South and West, but I think that's because it won't take me long and I do so love Joan Didion. It's not really setting me on fire but even at her most disjointed I am always interested in what Didion observes about the world.

CRjr is actually learning to read, and it is thrilling. He went from fighting it (I suspect he thought if he learned to read we would stop reading to him) to being pretty good at it, and this week he spent some time teaching CRjr the Littlest to read also. Which went fine until Littlest decided he was done learning for the time being and showed that by clocking his brother with the book. He is definitely related to me on the "lack of subtlety" scale.

AND NOW, YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK:

11 things you need to know about Neil Gaiman's "American Gods."