News & Notes - 11/16/13

News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, giveaways on this and other blogs, and other cool stuff.

Books & Ebooks in the News:

• Google Books book-scanning ruled 'fair use'; Authors Guild will appeal (Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly)
• Amazon & the US Postal Service are teaming up to offer Sunday delivery, but only in the NY and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. If the program goes well, expect to see it expand to other major metropolitan areas.  (Ron Nixon, New York Times)
• NSA surveillance fears are causing writers to self-censor not only what they write, but what they research and who they contact, according to a survey and report by PEN America.
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• 'TV Pitchman Kevin Trudeau Jailed For Diet-Book Lies'.  (Annalisa Quinn, BookNews for NPR's The Two-Way)
• Derek Jeter to launch imprint with Simon & Schuster. The new imprint, Jeter Publishing, "will release adult nonfiction, picture books, middle-grade fiction and more."  (Calvin Reid, Publishers Weekly) 
• 'Small Business Saturday Sees Authors Pitching In at Indie Bookstores' (Mercy Pilkington, Good E Reader)
• You don't want to know what's lurking on the pages of your library book.  Really, you don't.  Researchers in Antwerp found traces of cocaine on all 10 books tested -- and traces of the herpes virus on Fifty Shades of Grey. Ewww.  (Jessica Roy, Time NewsFeed)

Worth Reading: 

• 'Sometimes the Tough Teen Is Quietly Writing Stories' (Matthew La Pena, for NPR Books)
• 'The Folly of Child-proofing Harry Potter' (Peter Damien, BookRiot) 
• "With Nuanced Beauty, 'Hild' Destroys Myths Of Medieval Womanhood" Wonderful review by Amal El-Mohtar for NPR Books.

For Writers & Bloggers:

• CreateSpace has two new features for authors: matte laminate covers, and free inclusion in their catalog through the Expanded Distribution offer (which used to cost $25.)  (Mercy Pilkington, Good E Reader)
• 'How To Create A Better Writing Space (and Other Thoughts on Writing)' (Christy, Avoiding Atrophy blog)  She does get a bit enthusiastic about her Norden Ikea table (which is admittedly cool, and very useful for small spaces), but there are some other good points here, and several helpful tips.

Book & Movie Announcements:

• Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, a short novella written by Agatha Christie to help her church finance new stained glass windows (and long thought lost) is now available as an ebook.   Amazon   B&N,  Kobo,  probably also at iTunes
• 'Calvin & Hobbes eBook Debuts at Amazon, B&N, and  iTunes' This marks the first time the popular comics have been available in ebook formats. (Sovan Mandal, Good EReader)
• Disney is planning a stage adaptation of The Princess Bride.  Interesting idea.  Given that it's Disney, I suspect it will end up as a musical. (Kory Grow, Rolling Stone)

Awesome lists: 

• PW's Best Books of 2013
• PW's Best Children's Books of 2013, broken down into picture books, fiction, and nonfiction.
• 7 terrific literary tote bags with links to where you can purchase them. (BookRiot)
• Top 100 Romances chosen by readers in All About Romance's 2013 poll (not just 2013 books but from any year.)
• 17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand (Buzzfeed)

Just for fun:  

• Harry Potter... stamps?  That's right! The USPS will be issuing a series of Forever stamps featuring characters and scenes from the movies.  You can preorder your set here, and see some of the stamps at BookRiot.

Really Cool:

• Check out this 'Baywheux' tapestry showing 1000 years of Dr Who history by mudron (Click the link to see closeups.  You can even buy a print, if there's a Whovian on your holiday gift list - or download a hi-res version for your screensaver.)
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Bookish Quotes:

That's it for this week!

I'm always on the lookout for interesting articles, lists, and links for News & Notes, so please let me know if you see (or write!) anything that might be good for this feature.  You can leave me a comment or send me an email -- my address is on the About/Review Policy/Contact page.