Book News You Can Use 9/11/15

Relax in Paradise Rhoda Lerman and William Grier.

Congrats to the winners of the PEN Literary Awards!

Congrats also go out to the nominees of the Scotiabank-Giller Prize!

President Obama presented arts and humanities medals Thursday to several people in the arts. Stephen King, Jhumpa Lahari and Larry McMurthy were some of those who received awards.

I am still experiencing sadness from missing the Decatur Book Festival.  Looks like last Friday's main event with Roxane Gay and Erica Jong was tense.  Recaps are here and here.  And one writer from Book Riot got to attend the festivities.

The National Book Festival was also last weekend.  This video has Walter Mosley being interviewed by Book View Now host Rich Fahle and Kwame Alexander.

Two beloved children's books are celebrating anniversaries soon: Harold and the Purple Crayon and (one of my childhood favorites) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

A fully illustrated version of the first Harry Potter book will be released soon.

Negroland, which was released this week, continues to get a lot of press.  Read more here, here and here.

I work at a medical college (who has had their issues with diversity), so this book about being an African-American physician caught my interest.

While writing The Turner House, Angela Flournoy found inspiration from Zora Neale Hurston.

Naomi Jackson was interviewed for Mosaic Magazine.

An Asian family is protesting a white poet's use of a Chinese name, saying that the name came from one of the poet's former classmates.

Jabari Asim was recently cleared in a unusual, but not surprising, traffic citation case.

Censorship fail #1: New Zealand officials banned a YA book. Yes, the book has been banned from the whole country.

Censorship fail #2: A woman in Tennessee wants to ban The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks from her son's school because the book was too pornographic.  What book was she reading?

Censorship win: Remember the story about the parent who had Some Girls Are banned from one of the Charleston high schools and there was a drive to get the book in the hands of teenagers in the area?  Nearly 1,000 copies were donated and are currently being issued out in several of the public libraries in town.  Read about it here.

James Patterson will be visiting Baltimore and will donate 25,000 books.

Looks like Harper Lee was working on a novel that was based on a real crime.  The new mystery is whether she finished it.

Grace Jones is not here for most of today's pop stars.  Do they even know who she is?

Wendell Pierce did an interview for CBC Radio (like NPR but for the Canadians), in which he discussed how important the arts are to the recovery of New Orleans.

Bob Woodward is not finished with Watergate. He's releasing a book on the aid who released President Nixon's secret tapes.

This bookstore in Alabama only sells autographed copies.  I may need to visit there one day.

As poet and author Dwayne Betts can tell you, one book can change your life. Even in prison.

Picture is from this Facebook fan page.