Tennessee Parent Wants Textbook Pulled
A mother in Tennessee (and founding member of Sullivan County Parents Against Islam Indoctrination, because of course) is calling for the pulling of a history textbook because it “promotes Islamic propaganda” by saying factual things about Islam, like that it exists, and that it has a long and interesting history, and what that history is. This specific case has been going on for awhile, but in our new atmosphere of emboldened racism and xenophobia, I expect we’ll see a sharp uptick in this sort of thing.
Medieval Book Curses!
Hand-crafting a book during the Middle Ages was excruciatingly time intensive, and it turns out that scribes protected their work by adding medieval curses to the beginning or last pages of their books. The curses threatened painful death and excommunication for anyone who caused damage to the book. Perhaps a good idea for those of you who routinely have books people borrow from you returned damaged?
You’re More Likely To Land on the Best-seller List if Your Name is David Than If You’re a Minority
The Bookseller Magazine has analyzed the top 500 best-selling books of the year, and found that a writer has a better chance of landing on the list if their name is David than they do if they come from an ethnic minority background. There were only six authors of color on a list of 500 titles–and that’s actually an improvement over previous years. Yay?
Thanks to Swoon Reads for sponsoring This Week in Books.
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