Just in time for National Readathon Day tomorrow, we’re excited to bring you another installment of our weekly Lit News Roundup. Inaugural sponsors Penguin Random House and the National Book Foundation invite you to curl up with your favorite book and set aside time to read on Saturday, January 24. It’s not too late to join them in pledging your time and funds to help encourage literacy and grow reading programs in the US.
We congratulate all the finalists for the National Book Critics Circle, with extra cheers to our friends at Graywolf Press and author Claudia Rankine, whose book Citizen: An American Lyric is nominated in both poetry and criticism. Toni Morrison will receive the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.
Missed author Curtis Sittenfeld’s Buzzfeed list of the twenty-four Things No One Tells You About Book Publishing? We found her thoughts on topics ranging from blurbs to best-seller lists smart, honest, and witty.
Speaking of tips and tricks, we enjoyed reading Washington Post fiction editor Ron Charles’s recent article outlining the reasons publishers tend to redesign covers for paperback reprints, and what influences their decisions. His sample book? Lookout author Maggie Shipstead’s wonderful novel, Astonish Me!
If you didn’t click the link on our Facebook page already, we suggest this thoughtful Musings post on resolutions, recommended reading for 2015, and kissing John Updike by author and Parnassus Books owner Ann Patchett, in which she mentions our debut title, Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman. Pick up a copy at your favorite bookstore or on Lookout’s site, and enjoy your weekend reading!