“Street Fighting on Rue Soufflot, Paris, June 25, 1848,” painted by Horace Vernet, born 229 years ago today.

It’s been a long hot week in cold dark year, and you could probably use some good news. Friend, we have some: everything we sell—all of our books, every last mug, shirt, and tote, all of it—is on sale at an additional discount, for a total savings of forty percent. Wow!

While we’ve been bracing ourselves for the rush of frenzied retail that lays before us, we also managed to squeeze in some bloggin’:

• Ian Dreiblatt wrote about the hate mail currently bombarding LA’s Red Hen Press as punishment for the fact that a 100% unrelated Virgina restaurant called the Red Hen declined to serve food to Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week.
• Stephanie DeLuca needed to visit the library, so she hit the beach!
• Tom Clayton noted that there’s something amiss when bookstores must take to Twitter to ask folks to buy books, heartwarming as the response to such requests may be.
• Michael Barron told the chilling tale of a Nigerian publisher brutally robbed in his home!
• Taylor Sperry saw JetBlue giving away some books, and invited us all to suggest worthy recipients.
• Michael Seidlinger dared to ask: what do a book’s sales numbers really mean?
• Simon Reichley enjoyed a good long cackle at the expense of everyone’s favorite J-Franz, and invited all to join him.
• Susan Rella discovered the Corgi Generator, and has not been heard from since. We very much hope for her return, but no promises. Have you seen those corgis? (Corgies?)
• Alex Primiani spread the word that Jimmy Fallon is starting a book club!
• Ryan Harrington discovered that the nation of Colombia has a Lord of the Books, and spread the word.
• Nikki Griffiths noted that, while authors may wish to receive more money, this cannot necessarily be promised to them.

“Swan Upping at Cookham,” by Stanley Spencer, born 127 years ago today.

There was some more news we didn’t get to this week, but since you’ve got books to buy, we’ll keep it real short:

• Legendary philosopher Stanley Cavell has died!
• So has former poet laureate—and non-lover of the Beats—Donald Hall!
• Kindles can now work in Arabic!
• Oakland’s Laurel Book Store is going out of business!
• Some are now arguing that the press should suspend all normal relations with the Trump administration.
• Good to know: Next week, our usual bloggerie will be on, how you say, le hiatus, as we use this space to offer exclusive previews of some of the forthcoming books we’re excited about. Much to read, friends, verily, and even pre-order!

And, last of all, normally offer a cartoon in this space. But nothing is normal right now, the world is on fire, and we need something of very high dosage, so here, to appease the gods below, is an editor’s pick that is not, entirely, a cartoon. It is, however, entirely magnificent. Please enjoy Michael Robinson’s insano fantastic These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us.

May the road rise to meet you and your air be conditioned. Please enjoy next week’s book preview, and we’ll be right back here, huntin’ snark and sharin’ news, a week from Monday.