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Today In Books

Guillermo del Toro’s SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Exit Strategy by Charlton Pettus, new from Hanover Square Press.


Guillermo del Toro’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Guillermo del Toro’s passion project, an adaptation of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, got financial backing and is go. André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe) will direct, and del Toro will co-write and produce. I’m guessing that everyone who remembers the Alvin Schwartz books (and the original illustrations) will either be impatient to see the adaptation, or choose sleep and avoid it like the plague (#teaminsomnia).

Reese Witherspoon’s New Lifestyle Book

She of the popular book club and anticipated Little Fires Everywhere adaptation is penning a book in addition to championing them. Witherspoon said Whiskey in a Teacup is “all about Southern living and my Southern heritage, and how that sort of informs pretty much everything I do, from what I eat, to how I decorate, to how I celebrate family traditions, even how I do my hair.”

Laundering With Fake Books

An author postulated that fraudsters could be using fake books produced through Amazon’s self-publishing arm, CreateSpace, to launder money. Business writer Patrick Reames received a 1099 claiming that CreateSpace paid him tens of thousands of dollars for what turned out to be a highly priced book of gibberish published under his name with his social security number. Reames, who says the book was published fraudulently, has so far been unable to get much response, or a revised 1099, from Amazon. Amazon has removed a number of similar titles.

 

And don’t forget to enter to win 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far!

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Giveaways

Win a Shelf of Megan Abbott Books!

We have a stack of books by Megan Abbott to give away to a lucky Book Riot reader!

The stack of books from the Edgar-Award winning Abbott includes:

Give Me Your Hand
You Will Know Me
The Fever
Dare Me
The End of Everything

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click on the collage of the cover images below. Good luck!

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The Goods

Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader

Celebrate the power of books with this limited-edition tee, available in 5 styles. Just 3 days left to snag this one!

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New Books

First Tuesday of May Megalist!

HAPPY MAY! I have composed a huge list of books out today so buckle up, buttercups! As you are reading this, I am presently on day two of my vacation. I am spending the week getting a tan on a tropical beach!

JUST KIDDING. I took a week off to catch up on some backlist, and I am at 100% at home in my jammies. You can follow along with my reading adventures on Instagram.


Sponsored by Chuck Palahniuk’s Adjustment Day, on sale now from W. W. Norton.

People pass the word only to those they trust most: Adjustment Day is coming. They’ve been reading a mysterious book and memorizing its directives. They are ready for the reckoning.

In his first novel in four years, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk does what he does best: skewer the absurdities in our society. Smug, geriatric politicians bring the nation to the brink of a third world war; working-class men dream of burying the elites. When Adjustment Day arrives, it fearlessly makes real the logical conclusion of every separatist fantasy, alternative fact, and conspiracy theory lurking in the American psyche.


You can hear about several of today’s new books and more great titles on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Amanda and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, including A Lucky Man, The Lonely Witness, The Electric Woman, and more.

(And like with each megalist, I’m putting a ❤️ next to the books that I have read and loved. There are soooo many more on this list that I can’t wait to read!)

P.S. Don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far! Enter to win here.

welcome to lagosWelcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo ❤️

Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle) by Emily Devenport ❤️

The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

Meet Behind Mars (Made in Michigan Writers Series) by Renee Simms

Mr. Flood’s Last Resort by Jess Kidd ❤️

Ivory Pearl (New York Review Books Classics) by Jean-Patrick Manchette, Donald Nicholson-Smith (Translator)

The Devil’s Reward by Emmanuelle de Villepin, Christopher Delogu (Translator)

All Summer Long by Hope Larson

Tradition by Brendan Kiely

black helicoptersBlack Helicopters by Caitlin R. Kiernan

The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner ❤️

I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land by Connie Willis

Phoresis by Greg Egan

Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change by Tao Lin

Love That Bunch by Aline Kominsky-Crumb ❤️

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now by Dana L. Davis

The Seasons of My Mother by Marcia Gay Harden

Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon ❤️

royalsRoyals by Rachel Hawkins ❤️

Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian

The Dead House: A Novel by Billy O’Callaghan ❤️

Captive Audience: On Love and Reality TV by Lucas Mann

It Needs to Look Like We Tried: A Novel by Todd Robert Petersen ❤️

Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk

Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir by Cinelle Barnes

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel ❤️

Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father by Peter Stark

the optimistic decadeThe Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel ❤️

Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet by Joan Halifax

Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl: Poems by Diane Seuss

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

The Island Dwellers: Stories by Jen Silverman

A Lucky Man: Stories by Jamel Brinkley ❤️

Limelight by Amy Poeppel

The Military Science of Star Wars by George Beahm

Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty by Jacqueline Rose

ship itShip It by Britta Lundin

The Lonely Witness by William Boyle ❤️

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses) by Sarah J. Maas

What You Want to See by Kristen Lepionka ❤️

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay ❤️

Motherhood by Shelia Heti

Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work by Alison Green

Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne

Little Fish by Casey Plett

the electric womanThe Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine ❤️

Song of Blood & Stone: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book One by L. Penelope

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty

The Garbage Times/White Ibis: Two Novellas by Sam Pink ❤️

Hey Ladies!: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails by Michelle Markowitz  (Author),‎ Caroline Moss (Author),‎ Ms. Carolyn Bahar (Illustrator)

The Poppy War by R. Kuang

Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love after Loss by Lisa Romeo

The Abbot’s Tale: A Novel by Conn Iggulden

the piscesThe Pisces by Melissa Broder ❤️

Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade ❤️

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

Flying Jenny by Theasa Tuohy

Miss Subways by David Duchovny

The Wooden King: A Novel by Thomas McConnell

The Queen’s Embroiderer: A True Story of Paris, Lovers, Swindlers, and the First Stock Market Crisis by Joan DeJean

Sorority by Genevieve Sly Crane

freya and the magic jewelFreya and the Magic Jewel (Thunder Girls) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Slave Old Man: A Novel by Patrick Chamoiseau

Kicks: The Great American Story of Sneakers by Nicholas Smith

The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis, Michael Lucey (Translator) (paperback)

My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues by Pamela Paul (paperback) ❤️

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka (paperback) ❤️

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins (paperback)

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas (paperback) ❤️

That’s it for me today! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

Categories
Book Radar

Michael B. Jordan Hits the Screen in JUST MERCY and More Book Radar

Hello, book lovers! As you read this, I am currently on day three of my reading staycation.  My plan is to read backlist and reread favorite books from the last few years. I can’t wait to share what books I loved! In the meantime, here is a bunch of fabulous book-related news to feast your brains on. I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you have something wonderful to read. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty


Sponsored by Hush, My Inner Sleuth by M.E. Meegs

This serpentine saga opens in the year 1947 at a New England women’s college, where the ever-playful Betty escapes a meddlesome narrator by slipping her friend Willie a mickey and assuming her identity. Undaunted, the plucky storyteller adopts Willie as her new protagonist and travels with her to L.A.

Soon after their arrival, the pulp-inflected ghost of Skip Ryker—a recently atomized Hollywood detective—hijacks the head of the literarily precocious Willie in  hopes of solving his murder. What follows is a comic saga of intrusive narrators, metafictional backstabbing, and one very peculiar psyche. (Accepting ARC requests now…)


P.S. Don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far! Enter to win here.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What famous novel features a character named Homer Simpson? (The answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Lorne Michaels, Aidy Bryant adapting Lindy West memoir Shrill.

Exciting news: There’s a new Nicole Dennis-Benn novel on the way!

Release date set for Michael B. Jordan legal drama Just Mercy.

Susan Orlean’s next book is about libraries.

David Tennant shared more info about Good Omens.

Seith Mann to adapt BLACK comic.

Girl Waits with Gun to be adapted as a series.

Alex Segura’s Pete Hernandez series to become a show.

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now is going to be a show. (The book releases tomorrow.)

Jurnee Smollett-Bell joins HBO’s Lovecraft Country.

George R.R. Martin announced a release date for his next book, Winds of Winter. JUST KIDDING! That’s never coming. His new book is called Fire & Blood.

Amy Adams will star in the adaptation of The Woman in the Window.

heft coverRenée Zellweger and Louie Anderson to star in adaptation of Heft.

A new trilogy in the world of Miss Peregrine is coming.

Here’s the weekly Stephen King news: The Long Walk headed to the big screen.

Naomi Watts, Sophia Lillis to star in Burning Season, based on the story of Laura van den Berg.

The Heathen comic is coming to the big screen.

David Copperfield cast adds Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie alongside Dev Patel.

Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City to get a television series sequel.

Hulu is developing a series based on Less Than Zero. (Why-o?)

Cover Reveals

Here’s the gorgeous cover of The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar. (Counterpoint, 2019)

Sneak Peeks

cover image: black background with a flat razor at bottomHere’s the first look at Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. (Omg Sophia Lillis is the perfect pick to play young Amy Adams.)

And here it is, the first trailer for Crazy Rich Asians!

Here’s the trailer for the adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Burning.

A new look at the Fantastic Beasts film.

Here’s a new teaser trailer for Dietland.

Book Riot Recommends 

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week!

sick a memoirSick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour (Harper Perennial, June 5)

Khakpur has two wonderful novels under her belt. Now she takes readers on a personal journey through her life and her struggles with late-stage Lyme’s disease, and what it’s like to live with a chronic illness. She explores her illness by way of the different places she has lived, and explains how she manages the impact her illness has on her mental and physical health, and the toll it has taken. Perfect for fans of Brain on Fire.

dead girlsDead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (William Morrow, June 26)

Bolin examines America’s national obsession with stories surrounding dead girls. Her essays include examinations of Twin PeaksSerial, and works by Joan Didion and James Baldwin, as well as a discussion of the information and narratives surrounding dead girls that we absorb every day. This is wise, fascinating stuff.

What I’m reading this week.

Piecing Me Together coverPiecing Me Together by Renée Watson

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Swan Song by Robert McCammon

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Non-book-related recommendation.

Two words: Janelle Monae. She has a new album and a 48-minute accompanying short film.

And this is funny.

Maybe I am The Vanisher.

Trivia answer: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West, first published in 1939.

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Today In Books

JK Rowling Explains Why Harry Potter 9 Will Never Happen: Today in Books for Sunday, April 29th

We have 10 copies of our bookish conversation game Lit Chat to give away. Go here to enter for your chance to win, or just click the banner below. Good luck!


 

J.K. Rowling Adamant Harry Potter 9 Won’t Happen

While doing press for the Broadway premiere of Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, J.K. Rowling says that The Cursed Child is the end of the Wizarding World stories about Harry Potter. She says that Albus Potter was the character she was most interested in by the time she finished the novels, and that The Cursed Child is puts a cap on that storyline as well. I’m not sure I believe this, though not because I think she is dissembling, but because I am not sure Rowling can predict what she will want to do in the future.

 

Amazon Starts Limited Availability of In-Car Delivery

This seems like it could be an April Fool’s Joke, but it seems real that Amazon is rolling out in-car delivery. Using a new app called Amazon Key, Amazon Prime customers can sign-up to give Amazon delivery people the ability to leave orders in customers’ car trunks. On the one hand, this seems sort of bananas, but on the other, your trunk is basically a portable locker, so why not?

 

Some Publishers Adding Morality Clauses to Contracts

In response to a wave of news about sexual misconduct on the part of some authors, some publishers are starting to include so-called “morality clauses” into contracts. This clause allows a contract to be cancelled if the author engages in behavior that is generally considerable unacceptable within a given community.

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Riot Rundown TestRiotRundown

042918-Educated-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Random House.

Tara Westover was seventeen when she first entered a classroom. Her stunning debut, in the tradition of The Glass Castle, recounts the quest for self-invention that took her from an unschooled childhood with Western survivalists to the halls of Harvard and Cambridge. EDUCATED is the must-read book of 2018, a memoir hailed by Amy Chua, the author of Political Tribes and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, as “breathtaking, heart-wrenching, and inspirational” and by J. D. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, as a “powerful tale” that “deserves to be widely read.”

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Giveaways

Win a Bookish Gift Box!

 

We have 5 Bas Bleu prize packs to give away to 5 Riot readers! Just complete the form below to enter.

Here’s what Bas Bleu is all about:

Bas Bleu is a catalog company offering an eclectic, handpicked selection of odd little books and gifts. A literary boutique that’s an alternative to big-box booksellers, Bas Bleu offers fun, friendly personal recommendations of high-quality products that readers may not discover otherwise.

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click on the prize image below! Good luck.

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Today In Books

Did A Human Or AI Write This Poem? Today In Books

This edition of Today In Books is sponsored by Educated by Tara Westover from Random House.

cover image: a book at an angle with a white cover and the tip of a sharpened red pencil


Did A Human Or AI Write This Poem?

In the battle between AI and humans it looks like AI is coming for poets next. Microsoft and Kyoto University researchers created an AI capable of fooling some judges into thinking the poems it wrote were human created. I mean if there’s going to be a robot uprising at least they’ll be poet AIs.

Horror Movie Trailer Terrifies Families Before Peter Rabbit Film

Possibly ranked as more traumatic than seeing Bambi’s mom get shot in the theater as a kid is watching a terrifying trailer for a horror movie when you’ve come to see Peter Rabbit. That nightmare inducing accident happened at a screening at Event Cinemas in Innaloo, Western Australia when parents found themselves covering their young children’s eyes/ears or quickly trying to rush out as a preview for the upcoming horror movie Hereditary played.

And The Edgar® Awards Go To…

The Mystery Writers of America announced the Winners of the 2018 Edgar Allan Poe Awards on Thursday night during the 72nd Gala Banquet in New York. Attica Locke’s fantastic Bluebird, Bluebird won “best novel.” Jordan Harper’s–also fantastic–crime novel She Rides Shotgun won “best first novel by an American author.” You can see all the winners here and find your next great mystery read.

 

Speaking of mysteries: don’t forget to enter to win 15 (fifteen!) of this year’s best mystery/thriller releases.

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Today In Books

Colin Firth To Star In THE SECRET GARDEN: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Running Press Kids and THE BATTLE OF JUNK MOUNTAIN by Lauren Abbey Greenberg.


Colin Firth To Star In The Secret Garden

Colin Firth and Julie Walters will star in an upcoming film adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Firth will play Archibald Craven, uncle of 10-year-old Mary Lennox, played by Dixie Egerickx, who’s sent to live with him at Misselthwaite Manor. Walters will play Mrs. Medlock, Misselthwaite’s head housekeeper. The adaptation moves the story from “the Edwardian era to 1947, on the eve of Partition in India, and in the aftermath of WW2 in Britain.”

Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Debut Tops List of Books By Women That Have Changed The World

In a people’s poll of the books by women that have changed the world, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race topped the list. Eddo-Lodge’s debut novel beat out the 10 other shortlisted books, which included Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women. The poll was conducted for Academic Book Week.

2018 Nobel Prize In Literature May Not Happen This Year

This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature may be cancelled for 2018 due to the recent resignations of four members of the Swedish Academy, which determines the Prize, and its permanent secretary. Three members resigned in protest of a vote not to expel member Katarina Frostenson whose husband was accused of sexual assault and of leaking the names of seven past Nobel winners. Whether or not the 2018 prize will be awarded this year or next (alongside the 2019 prize) will likely be determined by the Academy next Thursday.

 

And don’t forget to enter to win 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far!