Citizen Reader

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

Well, this is going to smack of shameless self-promotion, but I can't help myself. I got an essay published at The Millions last week! It's about my Dad, who was, among many other things, a reader. A reader I miss very much.

Now: back to the books!

So: are you finding your perfect summer reads?

The New York Times's chief book critic, Michiko Kakutani, "is stepping down."

Jesus Christ, Steve Jobs's widow just bought a controlling interest in The Atlantic magazine. I weary of tech types and their spouses and their endless money and their buying media companies. Oh, incidentally? Jeff Bezos has officially passed Bill Gates to become the world's richest man.

What's the hot trend in cover colors this summer? Evidently, it's millennial pink.

8 simple ways to "instill a love of reading in your kids."

13 tips for teaching news and information literacy.

"Rumors of the death of libraries have been greatly exaggerated."

"Why are opioid users overdosing in libraries, and how should librarians respond?"

First Book to increase digital resources with tablets.

Yeah, mainly I'm going to have to agree with the headline of this piece: "No, Richard Dawkins is not the most influential science writer of all time." (Related: Dawkins just lost himself an author event at Berkeley.)

Historian Thomas Fleming: Obituary.

The Bodleian Library is planning to publish a collection of Jane Austen's letters this fall.

What is Philippa Gregory (she of the Tudor-era novels) working on next?

George R. R. Martin teases a release date for the next book in his Song of Ice and Fire series.

Margaret Atwood is hot hot hot: here's a trailer for the Netflix adaptation of her Alias Grace.

Starz to adapt Stephenie Meyer's supernatural spy thriller The Rook.

Leonardo DiCaprio is working on adapting Tom Wolfe's 1979 nonfiction classic The Right Stuff (about test pilots and astronauts) for the National Geographic network.

The 2017 Romance Writers of America Rita Awards: Winners.

Arthur C. Clarke Award winner: Colson Whitehead.

Man Booker Prize: Longlist.

NONFICTION BOOK NEWS

I'm biased, because I love almost all nonfiction, but wow, there were a lot of interesting new nonfiction titles in the news this week.

Edward VII really liked the ladies, according to this new biography.

A book about how the white working class "resents professionals but admires the rich." I'm not in the mood for political reading lately but I might have to check this one out.

New True Crime (kind of): The Hot One: A Memoir of Friendship, Sex, and Murder.

New TV programs about Princess Diana (marking the 20th anniversary of her death) and a list of nonfiction about her.

Dying: A Memoir, is one woman's story of life after her terminal cancer diagnosis.

New nonfiction about what causes "the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and above all the Department of Justice to flounder in their efforts to hold not only the government, but America's financial institutions, accountable for their crimes."

New history: The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers.

Have you read the New York City/shopkeeper/restaurateur memoir Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin? Oh, it's so great. And now his daughter has written a memoir as well!

School Library Journal: New nonfiction for kids.

New York Times: Is the tradition of liberty "under mortal threat"?; a memoir on a woman's struggle with self-harming;three new books on how to "confront and reform racist policing"; "new details from Hillary Clinton's forthcoming memoir revealed"; why has English poet A.E. Housman never gone out of print?

BOOK LISTS

IndieBound: Bestselling books the week of July 22.

Christian Science Monitor: Best Books of July. I MUST have Jane Austen at Home. When the English Fall looks good too; a post-apocalyptic novel featuring an Amish character. But then, my favorite thing to say to Mr. CR when he leaves the house is, "You be careful out among the English." (If you don't get that reference, then you have not seen the movie Witness. Stop reading this and GO WATCH IT NOW. A Harrison Ford classic.)

Booklist: Best new books the week of July 31.

Harpers Bazaar: 7 new books to read in August. God helped me, I placed three books from this list on hold at the library. I will NEVER get all those books read.

Paste Magazine: The Best YA books of 2017 (so far).

The Millions: "In praise of short books."

Entertainment Weekly: 11 novels you can read in a day. LOVE the Shirley Jackson and S. E. Hinton suggestions here!

YA books that "take place in a day."

7 memoirs by young authors.

What to read this summer, a list compiled by "radio's biggest bookworms" (in the UK).

A look at some of the best out-of-print genre books.

MY READING NOTES

Not much else got done around here last week as I got involved re-reading the Poldark series. I am helpless against the saga of Ross and Demelza Poldark.

I also spent a lot of time with a book titled Raw Deal: How the "Uber Economy" and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers, by Steven Hill. It's good but it's taking me a long time to read.

AND NOW, YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK

Guess who's on board to help Neil deGrasse Tyson create his new video game "Space Odyssey"?

Just taking a little break from the interwebs this week. See you again next Monday!

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

Libraries provide teens with important life skills.

GoodReads is adding WorldCat to its book records.

Why do so many indie presses fail?

The story behind the newly discovered Maurice Sendak manuscript.

Alan Moore is planning a big send-off for his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic.

A bookseller on his complicated relationship with J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy.

Two new Harry Potter books are set for publication this October.

A posthumous collection of short stories from mystery master P.D. James is expected this fall.

Persuasion: Jane Austen's "kung fu novel"? (Also: Jane Austen is now on the ten-pound note.)

Next from novelist Junot Diaz: a picture book.

Sherman Alexie cancels his current book tour, citing his struggles with depression.

Jason Segel is not only an actor, he's a YA Sci-Fi writer.

2017 ITW Thriller Awards: Winners.

2017 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize: Longlist.

Outlander, season three: Trailer.

Amazon is now adapting Agatha Christie books too.

My Friend Dahmer graphic novel: now a movie.

NONFICTION BOOK NEWS

I don't know that I will get this new history of the showdown between President Truman and General MacArthur read, but WOW, this is a hell of a review of it by Andrew Bacevich. (Full disclosure: I love Andrew Bacevich. I love him because he writes things like this: "The result is a nation that today finds itself more or less permanently at war. At no time during the sixty-plus years since MacArthur’s downfall have existing civil-military arrangements worked as advertised. That is to say, never has the interaction of military and civilian leaders, conducted in an atmosphere of honesty and mutual respect, privileging the national interest rather than personal ambition and institutional agendas, yielded consistently enlightened policies.")

A new book is predicting Putin's downfall.

Comedian Kevin Hart: has a new memoir out.

A new science book about the "history of our atmosphere." (And it's been called funny! Love my science with a bit of funny.)

James Comey is shopping a book proposal.

New York Times: On American radicals; Joe Biden's new book is due out in November; how Steve Bannon and Donald Trump got into the White House; oh, my, I'm just so sad that it happens, but I am not up for a new memoir on what it was like to endure incest; two testimonials to the Syrian refugee crisis; on the birth of the modern Middle East; on human equality; a new biography of singer Sarah Vaughan; a new book about "affluence without abundance."

One of my favorite essayists, Meghan Daum, reviews three books on marriage.

BOOK LISTS

IndieBound: Bestselling books the week of July 18.

10 contemporary novels for fans of Jane Austen.

School Library Journal: 10 graphic novels that are not quite of this world.

Paste magazine: Best new YA books of July.

The Telegraph: 28 best books for your summer holiday.

AND NOW, YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK

You too can enter for a chance to win merchandise from Neil Gaiman's American Gods TV show...ends Tuesday!

The other day I tried to pick up my holds at the library and was stopped at the self-checkout when it informed me that I had 100 items checked out and couldn't take any more. This was a problem, as I still had three holds to check out.

So I moseyed to the checkout desk (what's odd was that I almost NEVER use self-checkout; I loathe and despise self-help machines, but I was just ducking in by myself and thought, well, I can try self-check this one time--see how that worked out for me?) and they very nicely let me take out the three additional books. Yay for human workers! Our machine overlords clearly were not going to override the system for me, but the librarians did.

But the point is: 103 items (plus a few on Mr. CR's card). And my house looks it. There are picture books, kids' sports books, novels, adult nonfiction books, and DVDs on every single surface around here. Ever since my eye has felt a little better I have just been pounding through any kind of reading material I can find. Add to that the two little boys demanding I order and pick up more books and DVDs for them ("Mom! More basketball books! Mom! More car books! Mom! Wild Kratts DVDs, STAT!"), and the fact that I'm taking Spanish language lessons and am now checking out Spanish CDs and kids' books, and it all adds up to one full library card.

Of course the obvious answer is to get CRjr his own card, but frankly, I don't have the energy to monitor two cards' worth of materials. So we will just have to streamline a bit.

What's also weird in this reading bacchanalia is that I don't really have one book I want to review today. In the past week I've skimmed a book on Dr. Who (Dr. Who the Doctor: His Life and Times), two books on reading lists and suggestions (Book Lust and The Novel Cure), a book on race that I really don't want to talk about because it's just too depressing and I can't figure out a way to talk about it without someone yelling at me for something, because that is how we don't talk about race in this country (The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America), a frothy romance (The Royal We), and listened to several intro Spanish CDs ("Hola. Que tal?" "Hello. What's happening?"). Oh, and did I mention I'm binging on British TV? Have you seen this series Line of Duty? It is UNBELIEVABLE.

Okay. I will try to be more focused next week. Really.

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

Still bereft over the loss of EarlyWord? This very handy list at The Millions of some of the biggest books coming in the second half of 2017 should help ease your pain just a bit.

This is a thoughtful article about how libraries and librarians are dealing with people suffering from the opioid epidemic--among other issues--and all librarians and library patrons should go read it.

Want your library's audiobooks, magazines, and ebooks all available in one place? There's an app for that!

Okay, the last time I read that a man "writes women as fully realized," the critics were talking about this shit book by Nickolas Butler. Maybe this Matthew Klam guy will be better. I certainly hope so. I can't believe it's 2017 and people can't stop falling all over themselves when a man seems somewhat able to write about women as--for Christ's sake--"fully realized" PEOPLE.

Oh, I'm sorry, was that out loud? I must have taken one of my angry pills this morning.

Buzz Books 2017: Romance Edition (from PublishersLunch).

Which country reads the most? This is a super-interesting infographic; go check it out. Then go read a book to help our numbers in the U.S.

Is Dr. Who the greatest superhero of all space and time? (Plus: the thirteenth doctor, just chosen, is a woman.)

How did the beloved children's book character Eloise come to be?

Coming this autumn (to the UK): Mr. Men books for grownups!

It's the bicentennial of Jane Austen's death this week (Tuesday the 18th, to be exact), so there are Austen Articles everywhere. Here's one on "the fifty shades of Mr. Darcy."

Related: This month's Jane Austen book group read (at the Guardian): Persuasion. Also: Will we ever get tired of Jane Austen? Seems not--here's three new books about her.

Biographer Kenneth Silverman: Obituary. Chinese author and Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo: Obituary.

Denis Johnson to be posthumously awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

James Grippando wins the Harper Lee Legal Fiction Award.

Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2017 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award winner (wow, that's a mouthful): Colm Toibin.

Even Dave Eggers is getting in on writing books for middle-schoolers!

Neil Patrick Harris is writing a children's book series.

Happy 200th birthday, Henry David Thoreau! (And here's a review of a new biography of the man in question.)

George R. R. Martin to adapt a different author's fantasy novel for HBO.

Zadie Smith is under contract to write her first historical fiction novel.

27 female authors who own SF and fantasy right now.

Netflix to make an adaptation of the cult graphic novel series The Umbrella Academy.

Middlemarch, the web series: Middlemarch "through a LGBTQ lens."

The "A Wrinkle in Time" adaptation: first still photographs. And: first trailer.

Starz has set a premiere date for season three of Outlander.

Game of Thrones: Ratings.

NONFICTION BOOK NEWS

A book of photographs of Michelle Obama will be published this fall.

"Political books and biographies are hot in 2017 so far."

Oh, good Lord, the story refuses to die. Milo Yiannopoulos's self-published book Dangerous has reached #3 on the USA Today bestseller list. (Although he may be inflating the sales figures. Huh. I'm shocked.) And: tee hee, here's the Digested Read of the book from The Guardian.

"A teacher, a student, a life-changing friendship"...and reading.

A new memoir about history and one journalist's search for the roots of her Latvian family.

Three books to help you take a deeper look at opioid addiction.

Attention all lovers of Brit TV: comedian Dawn French will publish her diary this fall (in the UK).

New York Times: a book of conversations with Bob Marley;a true crime procedural about an arsonist in Virginia; travel nonfiction from a British expat in Norway; on Jane Austen at home; a memoir by a woman whose family sold their Martha's Vineyard home to the new rich.

BOOK LISTS

Amazon: Best books of July.

Elle.com: Best books of 2017 (so far). I have a weak spot for this list because Jami Attenberg's book All Grown Up is on it, and I love people who love Jami Attenberg.

School Library Journal: Popular picks for July 2017.

3 romance heroines who "want it all."

Six baseball books for midseason reading.

What politicos are reading this summer.

Ten shows like Game of Thrones, only for teens.

MY READING NOTES

I was all over the place this week. I'll post about that on Wednesday.

AND NOW, YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK

Enter the Book Riot/Annotated podcast American Gods (Folio Society Edition) giveaway!

On Monday I was so busy whining about the demise of EarlyWord that I forgot to include my usual weekly reading notes in the Citizen Reading report, so I thought I'd put them here.

I forget exactly why I got Peter Coughter's The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business from the library, but I suspect it is because I am always interested in books about how to give presentations (enough so that I wrote one) and how to sell, because I am a terrible salesperson. I only skimmed this one, but I have to say I think it is one of the best and most succinct books on good public speaking that I've seen. You wouldn't even have to read the whole book; just read the first chapter: "Everything Is a Presentation." I particularly liked the list of characteristics of great presenters and their presentations, things like "It's a conversation, only you're doing most of the talking."* That does not mean you get to be boring or pontificate, it means, as Coughter explains, "We've all been there. Sitting in a meeting, praying for it to end while the speaker drones on about something that is apparently important to him, but of no interest to us. It might have been okay if he wasn't so stiff, so stilted, so 'professional.' Caught up in his own world. Lecturing us.

Don't be that guy. I can't say this strongly enough. Just talk with us. The best presenters know this, and that's how they present." (p. 16.)

That last line is the beginning, middle, and end of good public speaking. Coughter adds more bullet points, of course ("be yourself," "tell stories," "know your stuff," etc.) but I think his suggestion to just TALK with the people you present to is never given enough emphasis in other public speaking books.

Sharon Weinberger, The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World. I'm about thirty pages in to this one, and it's interesting, but I'm just not in the mood right now. Already I've learned that DARPA really began with the mission to move America ahead in the space race, and when they lost that mandate shortly after they were formed, they turned to investigating anti-insurgency during the Vietnam War. I'll definitely want to get this one back someday.

Nick Westergaard, Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. I am interested in digital marketing, even though I really have no idea how to do anything digital. I've also always been weirdly interested in marketing from a completely detached viewpoint. I don't really want to DO marketing but I find it a fascinating subject--how do people market and sell to us? How do we sell to others? So I snap up marketing books like I used to snap up dating books--I wasn't any good at dating either but found the whole process interesting from a sociological standpoint. But this book doesn't really seem to offer anything new, and it takes too long to get there. And ever since my eye went wonky this spring, I find myself asking, is this book worth wasting my waning vision on? No? Moving on.

Sophie Kinsella, I've Got Your Number. Total chick-lit fluff, but AWESOME chick-lit fluff, and set in London to boot.  A million times better than her Shopaholic series; many, many thanks to my friend who suggested I read this one.

*Full disclosure: In my experience, this is spot-on. I try to be a good listener, but let's face it, I like to hold forth. For an introverted control freak like myself giving talks and presentations is the most fun thing ever, because I get to interact with people for a useful purpose, and I get to mostly direct the conversation. Ah, that's the sweet spot.

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

So the big news this week is that EarlyWord is giving up the ghost. If you spend any time here, clicking on these links, chances are good you have clicked on a link to an EarlyWord story, because I link to them a lot. Or, I should say, I used to link to them a lot. This news that they will no longer be publishing their site depresses me on so many levels. Firstly, because they have just been such a handy site for news about fiction bestsellers and under-the-radar hits, as well as a great source about literary/movie adaptations. Where am I going to go for that kind of news now?

Secondly, they were a fantastic, team-written, professionally polished site. I'm not sure how they paid for themselves--only through advertising?--but if that is the case, then I am crushed that even they could not make it, financially. It happened at the Reader's Advisor Online (of which I was co-editor), of course, so this should all be familiar to me. But there seem to be so many resources and so much money in this world and NONE OF IT IS GOING TO PEOPLE WHO READ, WRITE, OR WRITE ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. Really. I know doctors and people who own cell phone stores are important. But are they really the only ones who can make any money these days? I guess the answer is yes.

On a related note I wish EarlyWord could post an entirely honest message about why they are stopping. In this age of tons of information and too much sharing we never really seem to hear the true reasons for anything.

Thirdly, this certainly seems to throw into sharp relief how the writing is on the wall for me too. Not like this will be a big loss for the Internet, but everyone gets to a point where they can't keep doing something--even something they love to do--for free. There is just not enough time in the world. The time came for RAO, the time came for Bookslut, the time has come for EarlyWord, the time is most likely coming for me. This makes me sad.

But anyway. Becky over at RA for All is still doing her part, and writing rousing calls for action for more title-awareness blogs/labors of love. God love her. Also, Jessica commented last week asking if I could suggest any sources to replace EarlyWord. Well, I'll look into it, but the best thing I can think of to do is to re-link to posts we did when RAO ceased publication: posts about how to keep up with reading news, and how to put together a database of titles that are coming soon. Many thanks, as always, to Cindy Orr for writing the lion's share of those posts.

EarlyWord is dead. Long live EarlyWord.

And now, onward:

"Toward a more diverse LibraryReads." (See? My very first link is to an EarlyWord story.)

"The campus novels (and movies) that get it right (and wrong)."

Earlier in the week I was very disturbed by reports that the TSA was going to start looking through travelers' books and papers. It looks, thank God, like they are backing off that policy for now.

A look at how storytimes have evolved.

A previously unpublished Maurice Sendak picture book has been discovered.

Happy 110th birthday, Robert Heinlein!

Good lord, Warner Bros. and J.R.R. Tolkien's estate are still fighting over royalties. (For more actual money details on the deal, try this related story at The Wrap.)

Spencer Johnson, author of the business classic Who Moved My Cheese?, has died, aged 78.

Crime writer Helen Cadbury: Obituary.

British poet Heathcote Williams: has died.

Patricia Lockwood's memoir Priestdaddy has been optioned by Imagine Television.

Okay, not really book-related, but God how I agree with this: "Mr. Zuckerberg, please don't run for president."

NONFICTION BOOK NEWS

A book about "being delighted to be British." I MUST HAVE IT.

A new memoir titled Drone Warrior, by a person who killed alleged terrorists using drones.

Do we all still really just want to be popular?

Well, you know I'm totally going to have to read a book about why it's awesome to be awkward.

J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy is still going strong, and just made it to the #1 on the USA Today bestseller list.

In the Days of Rain: a new memoir about growing up in a conservative, separatist cult in England.

An excerpt from a memoir about a "journey to confront my rapist."

On "the radical origins of Christianity."

Okay, I know. I am sick to death of Milo Yiannopoulos news too, all right? But I feel I have to report on the continuing story. Now he is suing Simon & Schuster for canceling publication of his right-wing political dross.

New York Times: nonfiction about the author's abiding love affair with Africa; a history of the London Zoo; for all you car nuts, a look at Ford's entry into racing;a memoir of a Texas childhood; Mark Bowden's new book about the Vietnam War; why was virtually no one prosecuted for the 2008 financial crisis?; a new Robert Sapolsky book on psychology and neurobiology (described as "quirky," it looks like it could be interesting...but 790 pages?!?!?); a new book on Jane Austen as a radical.

BOOK LISTS

IndieBound: Bestselling books the week of July 4.

Christian Science Monitor: 6 picture books for summer reading.

The Telegraph: 70 best books to read this summer.

GQ: The Best books of July.

School Library Journal: 36 stellar kids' books.

Three books that delve into the immigration debate.

"8 juicy Hollywood memoirs."

AND NOW, YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK

Yeah, I won't be watching American Gods, and this is one of the reasons why: "American Gods' Slow-Motion Shots Turn Blood and Gore Into Stunning Works of Art." I weary of blood and gore.

Let's look at the entire experience surrounding my reading of Scaachi Koul's essay collection One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, shall we?

Well, first of all, I only got it because I saw it mentioned somewhere while doing the weekly links round-up, I love reading essays, and I really enjoyed the title.

So then I brought it home, and I started reading the first few pages, and I wasn't loving it, so I started skipping around in it. I got as far as page 139, to the essay titled "A Good Egg." And here's how it begins:

"'DID I TELL YOU,' I bellowed into the yawning chasm of existence, on the first day of a new month of a new year, of renewed body and refreshed mind, 'THAT I AM DOING A CLEANSE?'

Before Hamhock [her boyfriend] and I left for our trip to Thailand and Vietnam, I knew that my body would be taking a beating because I have no self-control. We were going to a part of the world where beers cost a few bucks and you can still smoke indoors, so I figured I'd give my liver a head start by avoiding alcohol for the month of January. Dry January, they call it, an attempt to start the year off right, to cure your body of what you did over the winter holidays, to be a better person...My trip would be self-indulgent enough, complete with what the locals call a Bucket of Joy: ice, Red Bull, Sprite, and rum or whisky. It's a death wish served in a frosty pail, and I was going to drink all of them." (pp. 139-140.)

And my immediate thought was, God help me, I can't read essay collections by people in their twenties anymore. And I stopped reading it, but left it in my bedroom.

That was two weeks ago. And I've not touched the book since. But tonight was a particularly trying night in the household, as the juniorest CRjr has taken to not wanting to go to bed and makes the stereotypical 800 preschooler demands at bedtime: tuck me in. I need more milk. I heard a scary noise. You didn't tuck me in. And so on and so forth. So finally, because I was about to lose my temper, I left Mr. CR to corral Jr. (I'm a giving spouse like that) and went to our bedroom and shut the door. And then didn't have anything to do. So I picked up Koul's book again.

And this time, for whatever weird reason, I picked the book up almost exactly where I had left off. And the rest of that essay is about Koul going to college, and drinking, and the friends she made who were also drinking. And sometime later in the essay there's this. Please forgive me if I quote at length, but I don't want to truncate it:

"But girls don't actually get to drink like boys because boys do things to girls when they drink. When I was a teenager, the world told me that a girl is responsible for her own body if she's raped or assaulted when she's drunk: that's her fault, it's on her to not get so drunk she stops being fun and starts being a liability. My parents always told me drinking was risky, that it opened up the recesses of a man's brain and made him primal and territorial. Of course that's bad, we were told, but it's up to you to keep yourself safe. For the first few weeks at the hotel [where she stayed in improvised university housing], when I was invited to different parties in different dorm rooms, when older students offered to buy drinks for me, I attended reluctantly, in bulky clothes and with unbrushed hair. I refused to let anyone touch my drink, no one could open a beer for me, no one was allowed to offer me a cup, even an empty one--I'd bring my own. I was learning how to be fun, sure, but the threat loomed: one of the guys here can take it away from you in a heartbeat, and it'll be your fault." (pp. 143-144.)

And I thought, oh, God, I guess I have to read essay collections by twenty-somethings.

The rest of the essay just struck me as so sad. I won't tell you more about it, other than to say everything I read about being a woman these days (especially a young woman) just makes me feel really bad for both young women AND men. So: downer. But I still may read the rest of the collection.*

*If nothing else, I will have to read her essay about women and online trolling, that is discussed in this review. Sigh. Another reason to feel sad.

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

HarperCollins celebrates 200 years in the biz.

Costco's new "Pennie's Pick:" Adriana Trigiani's novel Kiss Carlo.

"These powerful ladies want you to read these powerful books by ladies."

10 things you never knew about Harry Potter.

Thank God for MobyLives, reminding us of all the ways Jeff Bezos is evil.

Wow, Facebook and Google pull in 50% of all online ad dollars.

Dan Brown's new thriller to be set in Spain. John Grisham also has a new novel out.

I'm not a big Philip Pullman fan, so this news doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but wow, this story is like the only big literary story this week: the cover of his new book has been revealed.

Oh, the creator of Paddington Bear (Michael Bond): has died. We just checked out a Paddington book from the library, but didn't get it read yet.

J.D. Vance embarks on a "different kind of author tour."

Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy to be adapted for TV.

Podcasts from librarians.

News from ALA Annual's show floor.

Here's an interesting discussion topic for librarians: when helping them with tech, do you ever touch a patron's device?

How a teen librarian addressed 13 Reasons Why in her community.

What Becky at RA for All picked up at ALA Annual. Also: the Read 'n Rave picks program summary.

Pew Report: Millennials are stellar at using the library!

NONFICTION BOOK NEWS

Milo Yiannopoulos's book "sells 65k in pre-orders."

New professional development titles on young adult reading, reluctant readers, and diverse populations.

Is there really a formula to fall in love with anyone?

A "memoir and a tribute to" Martha's Vineyard.

A new history of the Donner Party.

Bustle: Best new nonfiction books coming in July. Okay, you know I'm going to have to look at the Regretting Motherhood title; can you call that a "parenting" title?

New York Times: On increasing economic segregation in American cities;on the origins of the New York Police Department; a history/examination of flags; the story of DARPA (the military agency responsible for, among other things, the Internet) in Imagineers of War (which I have home right now).

BOOK LISTS

IndieBound: Bestselling books the week of June 22.

Christian Science Monitor: Best Books of June. You know I'm totally going to have to get The Essex Serpent, right?

Harpers Bazaar: Best new books of July.

Forbes: 10 business books every freelancer should read.

Entertainment Weekly: Patriotic books to read for the 4th of July.

Five nonfiction books to "stave off the summer slide."

Nancy Pearl's summer reading list.

Cuba, Then and Now: Collection Development.

Funny YA favorites.

MY READING NOTES

I've been re-reading Debra Ginsberg's memoir Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, which, for my money, is one of the best memoirs ever written AND one of the best insider looks at restaurant work to boot. Go read it. (Incidentally, only 3.5 stars at GoodReads? I don't know why I linked there. I think GoodReads blows.) I also read and reviewed a great book about British TV over at my Great British TV site.

The eldest CRjr has already discovered sports statistics books. Sigh. I'm no sports fan, but he loves them SO MUCH. So I'm listening to sports statistics.

AND NOW, YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK

He shows up in this article that asks, "Can science fiction really, realistically help build better futures?"

Happy 4th of July, all, and have a good week.