B&N, BAM Remain Open
Publishers Weekly reports that Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million are currently staying open. I would imagine, though, that this situation could change at any time, so you’d probably want to check with your local store.
A dystopian reading list: books to enjoy while in quarantine
The U.K.’s Guardian advises that, in addition to all the pandemic novels everyone is talking about, you might also want to read “some novels about being alone. You should also add some comfort reads, and poetry, and books about people being thoughtful and useful and kind.”
KIDLIT AUTHORS STEPPING UP DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS AND QUARANTINE
Ashlie Swicker writes, “Around the country, people who care about children are coming together and using their considerable talents to provide entertainment and education for the masses who are out of school and in need of stimulation.”
Here she offers links (current as of Monday, March 16) to several such resources.
How to Support Authors Whose Book Tours Have Been Canceled
Bookshop, “an online bookstore with a mission to financially support independent bookstores and give back to the book community,” offers a list of authors whose book tours have been canceled because of the epidemic. Since book tours can be crucial for sales, buying these writers’ books can help them weather the storm.
What It’s Like to Promote a Book in the Middle of a Pandemic
Amy Klein, author of The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment and Get Pregnant Without Losing Your Mind (Penguin/Random House), explains, “Canceling events and shutting down tours is crucial for public health—but it could tank my career.”
“People like me—writers with books that are scheduled to come out or have just come out—are almost as worried about our book babies as we are about our personal health.”
Lawrence Wright’s New Pandemic Novel Wasn’t Supposed to Be Prophetic
“Pandemics — like wars and economic depressions, with which they often coincide — leave scars on the body of history,” writes Lawrence Wright, author of the novel The End of October, scheduled for publication next month (April 2020).
In fact, this is the second time he has written a novel that was published around the same time as an eerily similar historical event. “What may seem like prophecy is actually the fruit of research,” he explains. Read about how he researched and created these fictional narratives.
© 2020 by Mary Daniels Brown
