It’s Saturday again, and that means it’s time for another installment of Book News Corner! This is where I select a few book-related news stories to share and comment on from the previous week.

I have to admit, I’ve had a lot of fun keeping track of bookish news and compiling it here throughout the week. There seems to be so much going on once you’re really paying attention! Here are a few of the things I found particularly interesting or noteworthy in the book world this week, for your reading pleasure.

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HarperCollins Employees Go on Strike

On November 10th, it was announced that union employees at HarperCollins would go on strike until the publisher agrees to pay them a fair wage.

Publishing has notoriously low wages while also expecting their staff to move to one of the most expensive cities in the country to work at their New York-based offices. It isn’t surprising that this model has led to tensions between the union and the company.

As of November 19th, the HarperCollins Union Twitter account suggests the strike is still underway with no additional updates.

(Source: Book Riot News newsletter, who shared an article from The Guardian)

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Bookshop.org Donating 10% Of Sales from Michelle Obama’s New Book to We Need Diverse Books

Michelle Obama’s new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times came out on November 15th. Given the popularity of Becoming, it will be interesting to see how this one performs.

In an email on November 14th, Bookshop.org announced that they’re partnering with Penguin Random House to promote the book. This promotion includes a big old banner on the website, plus a pledge to donate 10% of proceeds from release day through November 27th to We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit that works to promote diversity in literature.

(Source: Email from Bookshop.org’s Elle McKenzie)

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Excerpt from Emily Henry’s Happy Place Released

We’re Emily Henry fans here at Your Book Friend, so it stands to reason we must do some arm flailing excitement about basically any news in the extended Emily Henry-verse. her latest book, Happy Place. Earlier this week, Entertainment Weekly published an exclusive excerpt from the new book, which is set to release April 25, 2023.

I tend to avoid excerpts myself, as I prefer to have the whole thing rather than just a preview, but even I will make an exception for this one. I’ve already received a zero percent surprising “nope” from Berkley on my request for a review copy, so I’ll be eagerly awaiting April 25th to read the rest.

(Source: Emily Henry’s substack newsletter, Emily’s Grocery List)

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Voting for the Goodreads Choice Awards Has Begun

Every year, Goodreads asks its members to vote on their favorite books of the year across a variety of genre categories. This year’s first round of voting has officially commenced as of November 15th, 2022.

Readers can pick the book they liked best across 17 categories, primarily broken down by genres such as horror or romance, but also including the debut novel category. Goodreads helpfully tells you which books from your shelves are amongst the nominees, though it appears they can only show you two at a time, so I’ve been browsing the categories I read to cast my vote.

The results of this process are always interesting to me, as there’s a lot of regression to the mean in terms of which books got the most buzz and popularity. I think “best books” is a bit of a misnomer here, as it’s really more of a book popularity contest, which I am fine with.

(Source: Goodreads’ Instagram Account)

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Shut Up! Princess Diaries 3 Is Happening

Given the second movie’s nonexistent relationship to the books, calling this book news is a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless, the iconic Princess Diaries movie starring Anne Hathaway was inspired by the books by Meg Cabot, and so here we are. After some rumors about a possible third installment, Disney confirmed that a script for the project is in the works, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter on November 15th.

Thus far, none of the original actors are formally associated with the project, though Anne Hathaway has recently mentioned her willigness to reprise the role.

I did not appreciate the travesty that was Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement but enough time has passed that I can safely say I’m ready to be hurt again. Fingers crossed they opt to return to the source material, as Meg Cabot has offered plenty of new stories about Mia to pull from.

(Source: Daily Skimm Newsletter, appropriately subtitled “Please don’t crush my soy nuts. If you know, you know)

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That’s it for Book News Corner this week! Hear any interesting book news? I’d love to hear about it!

You can stay up-to-date on the latest book news by following us here and/or on Medium where this post originally published. We’re also on the sinking ship that is Twitter, on Instagram, and trying out the Mastadon situation as well.