This week! Books!
We Need Diverse Books announced this week that they are moving away from the term #OwnVoices, which had been used to refer to authors writing books and characters that reflect their background, citing the vagueness of the term and lack of safety for authors. As others have noted, the phrase had already been diluted pretty significantly:
Sad news this week as longtime Scholastic CEO Dick Robinson passed away at 84. Scholastic was started by his father in 1920, and Robinson was responsible for Scholastic’s expansion into book fairs, shaping many, many childhoods.
Your annual “why isn’t there a [Netflix/Spotfiy] for books?” article is brought to you by Nathan Newman at Slate.
In writing advice news, editor Kristen Weber talks about when and whether to give up, J. Michael Straczynski has a great reminder that ideas are a dime a dozen and it’s the execution that counts, and Ashleigh Renard talks about how to sell books on TikTok (no dancing required).
And The New York Times Style Magazine chose Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison for its book club, and Adam Bradley looks back on what gave the incredible novel such staying power.
This week in bestsellers
Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):
Adult print and e-book fiction:
- Freed by E.L. James
- Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
- Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Adult print and e-book nonfiction:
- How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
- Killing the Mob by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
- After the Fall by Ben Rhodes
- The Premonition by Michael Lewis
- What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
Young adult hardcover:
- Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
- One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
- Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
- Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
Middle grade hardcover:
- Stamped (For Kids) by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi and Sonja Cherry-Paul
- The Game Master: Summer Schooled by Matt and Rebecca Zamolo
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling
This week on the blog
In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:
- How will you publish your work in progress? The results! (2021)
- Utilize your protagonist’s perspective in a query (query critique)
Don’t forget that you can nominate your first page and query for a free critique on the blog:
And keep up with the discussion in all the places!
And finally, I really enjoyed this article about Naomi Osaka’s departure from the French Open and whether it reflects a time when people are rethinking ambition and their attachment to work.
Have a great weekend!
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In regard to J. Michael Straczynski’s comments that ‘ideas are a dime a dozen’:
I use to think that ideas were cheap, as we’re all flooded with them. But the skill needed to create a novel with intriguing, real-life characters who converse in riveting dialogue, set in a well-structured plot following certain guide-lines and with story arcs that occur in the right places takes time and effort to acquire in order to make the ideas shine was more important. But I wonder, now, if all the polished techniques, expert styles and rigid structures can compensate if novels are expounding upon and utilizing the same old ideas, styles and structures over and over again.
We, as a culture and as individuals, need to be moving forward and improving, but we need new visions and freshly inspired ideas in order to achieve it. The ways novels are constructed now are quite different to the way they appeared fifty, one hundred and two hundred years ago. I remember reading a few last century novels that had introductory descriptions, and also some back-stories, that went on for pages. Perhaps these were indicative of a slower life-style back then.
Other styles have also come and gone to reflect changes in society at the time. I really feel that all the arts are stagnating right now with few innovations taking place. I lived through the exciting sixties and seventies, and it was amazing how all the arts morphed to reflect new ideologies and, also, introduced new concepts and styles of their own. John Lennon was a spearhead of many innovations in music and culture: ‘Give peace a chance.’ ‘All we need is love.’ Helen Ready’s hit song, ‘I Am Woman’ has often been described as a ‘galvanising force for the women’s movement in the 70’s’, telling women it was okay to take back their power and what was rightfully theirs.
Novels that made a statement and went against popular beliefs of the time were able to change the world by opening people’s awareness to the suffering of the marginalised and the suppressed. Oliver Twist and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to name just two.
But even exciting new philosophies and concepts need to be presented in a way that is understandable and polished to enable these ideas to have the most impact and chance of acceptance, I think.
Hope this doesn’t sound like an essay which I handed in last week. 0.o