May News

* The brilliant Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Mars Trilogy, NEW YORK 2140, and many other seminal works, examines our current pandemic: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-coronavirus-and-our-future

* Two enlightening links about what our bookshelves say about us: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/books/celebrity-bookshelves-tv-coronavirus.html and https://twitter.com/BCredibility

* Check out the gorgeous relaunch of The Fabulist Magazine! They're running an open call for fantastical art, with more fiction, poetry, and reviews to come: https://fabulistmagazine.com/

* Cozy up with book-themed socks, and help out the bookseller community at the same time! https://libro.fm/binc


* Check out the virtual launch of one of Jude & Alan's favorite books of 2020, Mike Carey's BOOK OF KOLI! (You'll need to sign in & give your email to Orbit Books, but you probably want to get their updates anyway.) https://www.crowdcast.io/e/229sxi4b/register

* Fans of Sir Terry, rejoice! Discworld will finally be getting the adaptation it deserves: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/28/terry-pratchett-novels-faithful-tv-adaptation-discworld

* There’s a newly-discovered snake named after Salazar Slytherin! https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/world/salazar-slytherin-pit-viper-trnd/index.html

* Seven amazing libraries you can explore from your living room: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/7-libraries-you-can-visit-from-home

* The Baloney-Detection Kit -- Carl Sagan's rules for critical thinking: https://www.brainpickings.org/?s=baloney+detection+kit

* When Queen Elizabeth II made a rare televised appearance on April 5th, she gave a stirring, inspriational and heartfelt speech.  She also wore an electric green dress that made A LOT of people think "green screen".  And so hilarity ensured: https://www.boredpanda.com/queen-green-screen-outfit-photoshop/

* We're delighted that City Lights Books has gone way past their fundraising goal -- folks have donated nearly $500,000 to save this landmark bookstore! https://www.gofundme.com/f/aeany-keep-city-lights-books-alive

* A playful poem on the wonders of reading from Ursula K. Le Guin: https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/10/21/ursula-k-le-guin-reading-poem/

* Dan Mallory (pen name: A. J. Finn) went to No. 1 with his debut thriller, "The Woman in the Window,"  but his life contains even stranger twists. . . . https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/11/a-suspense-novelists-trail-of-deceptions

* What happens when you set out to create the world's worst porn? http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2017/07/10/amazons-secret-bad-erotic-video-auteur/

* She caught bullets with her bare hands, and made magic's glass ceiling disappear.  The greatest female magician you've never heard of - Adelaide Hermann! https://narratively.com/she-caught-bullets-with-her-bare-hands-and-made-magics-glass-ceiling-disappear/

* One man's mission to build a magical mouse village: https://mydailymagazine.com/post-36ce93c1/?dai=6BWwbB0KW1FKMEXE1aDOM8&fpCode=

* How do we know other industerialized civilizations haven't already risen and fallen in prehistoric times? This is how: https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/20/143758/if-we-werent-the-first-industrial-civilization-on-earth-would-we-ever-know/

* A star is dancing around a black hole -- just like Einstein said it would: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/world/star-black-hole-dance-einstein-relativity-scn/index.html