Barack Obama To Speak At Booker Prize Ceremony
The Booker prize ceremony will be held online this year, as the pandemic continues, on November 19th. It seems fitting that since the ceremony was moved from the 17th to the 19th to avoid too much bookish clashing on one day–the 17th is the release of Obama’s memoir A Promised Land–that Obama will be one of the speakers at the ceremony. He’ll join fellow authors and former winners Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, and Bernardine Evaristo.
Oprah & Brad Pitt To Adapt Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer
Author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel The Water Dancer will be adapted by Kamilah Forbes, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and Brad Pitt’s Plan B. MGM’s film group statement: “Ta-Nehisi’s debut fiction novel has at its heart, a beautiful character in Hiram Walker, whose personal odyssey weaves the supernatural and spiritual, with the terrible reality of the forced separations endured by enslaved people and their families for centuries.”
Chicago Public Libraries Benefit From Eliminating Fines
Chicago Public Libraries eliminated late fees, which collected around $800,000 to $900,000 a year, and are finding what is gained is worth more than the fees collected: the return of patrons and valuable books. 11,000 patrons who had fees removed ended up renewing or replacing their library cards and book checkout increased by 7%.
Reading Through Difficult Times: Books and Their Readers in 1918–1920
What were people reading during the Influenza epidemic of 1918-1920? A deep dive into the reading habits of that era.