Book News Roundup: The latest children's book controversy is a doozy

  • Thinking about moving to Tacoma to save on rent? Wondering if you should wear the polka dots or the stripes? Curious about whether you'll be alone for the rest of your life? If you have a question you'd like to have answered on stage at Bumbershoot, you should tweet it at Hugo House with the hashtag "#Oracle". Your question might be addressed by Garth Stein, Ijeoma Oluo, or Kristiana Kahakauwila; they will be divining responses from their published writings.
Part of what is disturbing about the reception of the book is the unexplored idea of the mother’s brief attempt to seat the slave laborers at the kitchen table as a great act of bravery and resistance, a sufficient antidote to the evil which is not even alluded to in the rest of the story.
  • Seth Grahame Smith, the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, is being sued by his publisher for breach of contract because he reportedly turned in a remixed public-domain work and they expected an all-new work.

  • This bomb-throwing story at comics news and commentary site The Outhousers is certainly a little aggro, but it makes a good point: it's very weird that the comic book industry entirely relies on pre-orders. No other industry builds their entire business model on the idea that customers pre-order their products, sight unseen. Books can live and die before readers even get to check out the first issue. There must be a better way to run the industry, right?