Hugh Ryan says the book club isn’t just about learning history, but “they had to get people connecting to one another. ‘We're bringing a history of revolution, but we're also trying to make community.’” - Wired
Artists that take inspiration from the headlines are often accused of “profiting” off these stories; whether that’s acceptable is a moral question, since as long as the work is fictionalized, artists are under no legal obligation to get permission from the source of their inspiration, let alone compensate them. - LitHub
“The original New York Trilogy owes a debt to the existential detective, a genre archetype whose cases carry themes of choice, isolation, meaninglessness; not just murder but mortality. … Questions of purpose surround the graphic New York Trilogy — unrelated to any existential searching.” - The Comics Journal
Sales in the genre have electrified the publishing industry, reaching nearly 20 million in 2023 when U.S. book sales overall dipped. While there is no hard data on readership, the audience for romance novels generally is over 80% female. - The Wall Street Journal
It’s a year of firsts for the International Booker: this is the first time that a collection of stories has won; it’s the first winner from the Kannada language; and it’s Banu Mushtaq’s first book to appear in English. At 77, she is also the oldest winner. - The Guardian
“On May 14, Eksmo, Russia's largest publisher … sent a letter to ‘all interested organizations’ (including booksellers) with a list of 50 titles to be ‘disposed of on site or returned if unsold.’ … A government crackdown came a day later, resulting in the arrest of eleven current and former employees of Eksmo.” - Publishers Weekly
“Librarians, who normally curate book collections, would need the school board’s approval before buying books under Senate Bill 13. ... District officials could appoint local advisory councils to review books and make recommendations (for buying or removing particular titles) to the school board.” - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
“United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reversed a district court’s preliminary injunction and dismissed free speech claims in Little v. Llano County. The lawsuit, filed in April 2022 by seven Llano, Texas, library patrons, concerns the removal of 17 books from the Llano branch library.” - Publishers Weekly
There’s no other system of encoding information quite like khipu, the knotted strings and cords used to keep records in the Inca Empire. For years, the research into their meaning was at a standstill, but in recent years there’s been progress in both recovering lost khipu and deciphering them. - The Atlantic (MSN)
“The big leap that the OSS made was book knowledge: the accumulation of a vast amount of seemingly trivial information, if analyzed intelligently, … would be directly valuable in deciding the direction of battles and of the war. … This work is exactly the kind that librarians and archivists undertake routinely, every day.” - Public Books
“Although the tongue called Proto-Indo-European hasn’t been used in 4,000 years, about half Earth’s inhabitants speak its more than 400 descendant languages. … The explosion of Proto-Indo-European from its origins in Eastern Ukraine … is, according to Spinney, ‘easily the most important event of the last five millennia in the Old World.’” - Slate (MSN)
While the authors may be real, the books don't actually exist. And the Chicago Sun-Times is being roasted online for publishing the AI-generated list. The paper initially couldn't explain how the piece was published. - CBC
I have about the same chance of publishing my work in The Paris Review as getting struck by lightning while being inaugurated as the Pope. But according to one Substack user Rhi, I should devote more time and energy to forcing my way into legacy print publications. - Metropolitan Review
I got this job the way I’ve gotten most of my jobs: through an acquaintance who heard I was looking for work. This is key to success in freelancing. You just need to build a roster of industry connections who know how desperate you are. - The Walrus
“Rural libraries in red states … know how to work with very little and maximize what they’ve got. But it’s that very resourcefulness that is making the cuts or freezes — depending on whom you ask — at the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services so challenging for these communities.” - Publishers Weekly
