The Morning RSS for Tuesday, 18 June 2024
A collection of share-worthy items from our morning blog scroll.
Shall we start with the unlikable? Let’s!
It’s a very fine line …when a character is too unlikable, I may end up with no interest in learning more about their arc and just DNF it. But when the character is complex (rather than caricatured) and when the author can make me feel some sympathy for them, this kind of character can be a real boon to a story — even if they never redeem themselves. ~ Jeremy Anderberg
Got a favorite unpleasant character? Jeremy wants to meet them.
For Writers & Creators
ICYMI - Jeff O’Neal has a round-up of creator-related stuff, starting with Google being sued over pirate sites. [via Book Riot]
… and speaking of AI. [We weren’t but everyone is talking about it …] we discovered this question to the universe in Kashana’s Bluesky feed.
New Books & Book Lists
Just in case you need to show a little love to your TBR
Read new books, celebrate Juneteenth, and be merry!
We like the way Erica Ezefeidi thinks! Check out her Juneteenth Books and the Best BIPOC Books Out Today [In Reading Color, via Book Riot]
Yes, Audiobook Appreciation Month is almost over. [Who knew?!] That doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate audiobooks the other 11 months of the year. Anybody in for taking a road trip just so we can listen to audiobooks? Anywho … the Children’s Book Council has some nice curated collections of YA titles for you here and here.
From board books to YA [there are zombies, just sayin’], our friends at The Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors have some Pages Filled with Pride for readers to enjoy.
And for those with a special TBR for award-winning books, here are the 2024 Lambda Literary Award Winners. [Book RIot]
Book Bans & Censorship
For 2024, we’re going to flip the perspective on book bans and censorship. Instead of sharing the head-shaking news, we’re going to share head-nodding ideas!
In a recent edition of Literary Activism, Kelly has a “on your toes, not your heels” interview with several plaintiffs [Read Freely Alabama, Alabama Library Association] in a federal law suit claiming that the Prattville bans violate First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Read it here.
Other Bookish Stuff
We Need Diverse Books has announced the 2024 Internship Grant Winners. There are nine winners for Children’s Publishing internships and eight winners for adult publishing.
Looking to engage with the #KidLit community? Check this out:
, Brian Kirby, and Charlene Chua have created a Mega Kidlit Feed on Bluesky. What is that?One feed [that] pulls in hashtagged posts from moderated #kidlit Lists from multiple users in the #kidlit community. The MEGA KIDLIT FEED is meant to make it easier for you can find many posts in one place. ~ Debbie & Charlene
Shaking your head, saying not another platform? Maybe Debbie’s thoughts will change your mind:
One of the reasons I love Bluesky so much is because it enables communities & individual users to more finely curate their experience here MUCH more than any other social media platform I've seen (& I've been using social media before the term existed 🦖😂). #BlueSkyRocks
Speaking for ourselves, we’ve been able to dump a lot of other things. Sometimes less is more. And BlueSky definitely is.
Oh! And one last thing. Have you decided on your favorite unlikeable character? We know you’ve been thinking about it while reading.
~ Team CYBILS