Around The Web: Good Books of 2020, Nancy Drew's 90th, Publishing Industry Struggles

Welcome, readers, to the penultimate Around The Web post of the year! This week, we’re sharing a book list from Bill Gates, a look at Nancy Drew’s 90th year of publication, some Canadian publishing news, and some thoughts on lack of diversity in the book industry.

Good Books for a Lousy Year

There are a lot of end-of-year book lists going around, but give that 2020 has been, well, quite the year, I thought I’d share this one: Bill Gates’ 5 good books for a lousy year.

Nancy Drew’s 90th

We mentioned that this year mark’s Nancy Drew’s 90th year since first publication earlier this fall, but if you’d like to know a little more about the history of the famous sleuth check out this story from CBS News.

Canadian Publishers Project Revenue Hit

Canadian Publishers are expecting to see revenues fall this year, according to CTV. The pandemic has had a dramatic impact, and with many bookstores closed it’s been harder for Canadian’s to discover books from small and medium-sized publishing houses. Still, there’s hope for next year (especially if you continue to support small publishers like us!).

Whiteness in Publishing

And since we’re talking about publishing, take a look at the New York Time’s piece on whiteness in the book industry. Publishing has made some efforts to increase diversity in books, but there’s still a long way to go. (And if you want a little more history, read Richard Jean So’s LitHub piece on postwar publishing.)