Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Anti-Racism Author Accused of Plagiarizing Minority Academics
Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility flew to the top of bestseller lists in mid-2020 during the height of Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Criticism came along with sales, and her follow-up book, largely went unnoticed. Now, according to a complaint filed by The University of Washington, DiAngelo’s doctoral dissertation copied passages from the work of multiple Asian-American academics. Having looked at the passages in the complaint, I am not sure how you defend this one.
Neil Gaiman Accused of Sexual Assault by Fifth Woman
When the news first broke of The Tortoise’s reporting on women coming forward about Neil Gaiman, I thought this was probably going to turn out to be much, much worse. This recent allegation, backed up by a phone recording of someone alleged to be Gaiman, is indeed worse. (A side note: The Bookseller did it’s due diligence and sought comment from multiple parties associated with Gaiman, including his US and UK publishers, and author associations of which Gaiman is a member. None of them responded. I don’t think that is going to work for much longer here).
Bookshop.org Launches Buy-back Scheme for Secondhand Books
I’ve written here about Bookshop.org’s success in selling print books and its subsequent forays into ebooks and audiobooks. For some reason, it didn’t occur to me to wonder about the last pillar of the book-selling Parthenon: used books. The logistics of selling used books are considerable: warehousing, acquisition, condition-grading and, to top it all off, low-margins. Furthermore, selling used books undercuts the healthier margins on the new books that are at the center of the indie bookselling business. But Bookloop, as Bookshop.org’s new program is called, short circuits this by not selling used books, but rather offering readers credit toward future purchases for sending their books in. The collected books won’t but sold on Bookshop, but rather through other third-party (non-Amazon platforms). This one is a bit of a head-scratcher to me, but seeing that major UK competitor, WH Smith, has a buyback program makes me wonder if this is more a feature-parity move in that market than a “hey this is a great idea in general and we should just do this” idea.
Guessing the Long List for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction
In the most recent episode of the Book Riot Podcast, Rebecca Schinksy and I undertake a fool’s errand: guessing the 10 books that will make the long list for the 2024 National Book Award. A fun, if futile, good-time.