Uncle Joe is On the Way
Following in the footsteps of their presidential partners, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, have secured a joint book deal with Macmillan imprint Flatiron Books. The contract reportedly went into at least seven figures and will include two books from the former veep and one from Jill. No release dates have been set. If you need us, we’ll be over here hoping for a the Bidens will team up with the Obamas for a joint book tour of unspeakable coolness. (Do it for the memes, Joe!)
First “Official” Black Lives Matter Memoir in the Works
Speaking of exciting developments at Macmillan! Patrisse Cullors, a cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement, has inked a high-six-figure deal (with cowriter and journalist asha bandele) for her memoir, When They Call You a Terrorist. St. Martin’s Press executive editor Monique Patterson won the book at auction, competing against six other houses. Angela Davis will write the foreword.
For the hat trick: This week, Macmillan launched Reading Without Walls, an initiative to encourage kids and their parents, teachers, and librarians to expand their literary horizons. If you’ve seen Book Riot’s own Read Harder Challenge, you know we love this idea.
A Map of Aural Tendencies
This week in Cool Interactive Tech with Questionable Methodology: Audible released data (kind of) about the relative popularity of various audiobook genres across the U.S. Have a scroll and see how much your state digs horror, sci-fi, humor, and more. We’d love to have a peek at the raw data that went into this, but given Amazon’s notorious reluctance to release actual numbers for, well, anything, we’ll have to be content with interesting approximations.
Thanks to Strong is the New Pretty by Kate T. Parker for sponsoring This Week in Books.
Girls being fearless. Girls being silly. Girls being wild, stubborn, and proud. Girls whose faces are smeared with dirt and lit up with joy. Strong Is the New Pretty celebrates, through more than 175 memorable photographs, the strength and spirit of girls being 100% themselves. Real beauty isn’t about being a certain size, acting a certain way, wearing the right clothes, or having your hair done (or even brushed). Real beauty is about being your authentic self and owning it.