FRIED GREEN TOMATOES and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER to Get Small Screen Revivals and More Book Radar!

Sponsored by Fence: Striking Distance.

Sixteen-year-old Nicholas Cox is the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion who dreams of getting the proper training he could never afford. After earning a place on the elite Kings Row fencing team, Nicholas must prove himself to his rival, Seiji Katayma, and navigate the clashes, friendships, and relationships between his teammates on the road to state championships. The first installment of this original YA novel series by Sarah Rees Brennan, rich with casual diversity and queer self-discovery, explores never-before-seen drama inspired by C.S. Pacat’s Fence comic series and boasts original cover and interior art by Johanna The Mad.

Hello readers and happy Monday! (It is Monday, I checked.) I hope you had a pleasant weekend and were able to get some reading done. I myself read books. (*Heather Chandler voice* “Quelle surprise.”)

I also watched several episodes of Murder, She Wrote, for work reasons. (No, really.) I originally saw the first few seasons as a child when they aired, but I haven’t seen it since then, aside from a couple of episodes that I watched last year. It has actually aged pretty well! (Of all the old shows I have rewatched in the last few years, surprisingly, Wings is the most horrifyingly problematic. And I say that having rewatched Soap!)

My favorite part of watching Murder, She Wrote – and old shows in general – is seeing beloved character actors or recognizing famous actors in early roles. I like to try and name them by other roles they’ve played. “It’s the rooster from Robin Hood! It’s Meleager the Mighty from Xena! It’s Julia Capwell from Santa Barbara!” It’s a fun game, and I highly recommend it.

Moving on, I have a bunch of fun bookish stuff to share with you to kick off your week, including another amazing book coming in 2021 that I have been dying to tell you about! Also, if you are looking for something funny to read during these dark days, I HIGHLY recommend picking up Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West when it comes out tomorrow. I laughed until I howled, and then read it a second time out loud to my boyfriend, and laughed even harder!

Remember that whatever you are doing or watching or reading this week, I am sending you love and hugs. Please be safe, and remember to wear a mask and wash your hands. And please be mindful of others. It takes no effort to be kind. I’ll see you again on Thursday. – xoxo, Liberty

Here’s Monday’s trivia question: ““The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” is the parenthetical title of what nonfiction book? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Ava DuVernay will direct Netflix’s adaptation of Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.

Fried Green Tomatoes is being adapted into a series starring Reba McEntire and produced by Norman Lear.

WOOHOO! Hulu is adapting Interior Chinatown, the National Book Award-nominated novel by Charles Yu. (I LOVE THIS BOOK.)

And speaking of small screen revamps: I Know What You Did Last Summer is also going to be a new series.

Stacey Abrams is releasing a political thriller.

Emma Roberts will produce a YA vampire series, based on a story by V.E. Schwab.

Lena Waithe will produce a Sammy Davis Jr. biopic, based on a book by his daughter.

George Clooney will direct and Bob Dylan will produce an adaptation of John Grisham’s Calico Joe.

Devoted by Dean Koontz is being adapted for television.

Gabrielle Union has optioned The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray for a series adaptation.

Dexter is coming back to Showtime for a limited series.

And speaking of crime, the rights to Alice Diamond And The Forty Elephants, Brian McDonald’s true crime story about Diamond’s all-female crime syndicate, have been snatched up.

Yasha Jackson has joined the cast of The Flight Attendant.

Here’s the trailer for season two of His Dark Materials, which now feature Hot Priest/Moriarty.

Bill Nighy will star in Kazuo Ishiguro’s adaptation of Kurosawa’s Ikiru.

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 learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR! (It will now be books I loved on Mondays and books I’m excited to read on Thursdays. YAY, BOOKS!)

Loved, loved, loved:

We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen (MIRA, January 26, 2021)

Jamie and Zoe are strangers who wake up one day in separate apartments they don’t remember renting. The bad news: they have no memory of who they are or how they got there. The good news: they have superpowers. As they go about their lives, Jamie decides to use his powers for evil, erasing people’s minds to pull off bank heists. Zoe becomes a heroic vigilante, catching criminals in the city, which is how she and Jamie first cross paths. A second encounter at a support group for people with memory loss leads them to realize they have a lot in common: they may both be part of some unknown plan. Together, they seek the truth of their pasts, while becoming besties along the way.

I love this book so much that I actually talked about it for almost ten minutes to a friend before I realized I hadn’t even mentioned that Jamie and Zoe had powers. There’s just so many great parts to mention! It’s a funny, refreshing take on superpower origin stories, full of adventure, but it’s not very violent or mean-spirited. It’s also queer and diverse, and bonus: there’s no romance! All these things add up to one of the most exciting novels headed our way next year. Put it at the top of your list now!” – from Riot Roundup: The Best Books We Read in July-October