At The Reading List, we’re trainspotters when it comes to interesting book links, and here are a number that caught our eye.

• If this doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, nothing will: NASA named the landing site of its latest Mars rover, Perseverance, after sci-fi author Octavia Butler. Welcome to “Octavia E. Butler Landing” is the kind of phrase to raise gooseflesh. Chapeau, NASA.
• Neat to see journalist Caryn Dolley signing with Maverick451 to publish a new book about the South African Police’s involvement in the SA underworld. Coming up in May, apparently.
• Um, STEPHEN FRY SHOUTED ABOUT A SAFFER’S INDIE-PUBLISHED NOVEL.
• Omg, it’s a library cake.
• Nobel Literature Laureate and star of Victoria’s Secret commercials Bob Dylan is set to turn 80 this May. Here’s a Q&A with the authors of four upcoming Dylan books.
• Read an excerpt from Do Not Disturb, Michela Wrong’s new book, which is about the extreme and deadly dodginess of the Rwandan government and its hero-turned-arch villain, Saudi-prince wannabe president, Paul Kagame.
• Yes, but do we have to call them ‘bonkbusters’ – ?
• That time a poet who is dear to us topped a bestseller list in a big bookshop.
• Hey, there’s a biography of Derrida lurking about.

• Find our previous Footnotes here.

Categories Fiction International Non-fiction

Tags Bob Dylan Bonkbuster Caryn Dolley Derrida Do Not Disturb Footnotes Lynn Joffe Mars Maverick451 Michela Wrong NASA Octavia Butler Octavia E Butler Landing Paul Kagame Perseverance Simon van Schalkwyk Stephen Fry The Gospel According to Wanda B Lazarus Transcontinental Delay