Sponsored by Gallery Books and Mary Alice Monroe's ON OCEAN BOULEVARD.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Guests returns at long last to her beloved Isle of Palms in this breathtaking novel about one family’s summer of forging new beginnings against the enduring beauty and resilience of the natural world.
Happy Monday, my little star slough. I hope you had a good weekend. I had a pretty relaxing time in my secret volcano lair. My reading for All the Books! episodes in 2020 is all done, so I have been trying to squeeze in a few books I missed before we start recording new episodes. We are coming up on our 300th episode in a couple months, which is something to celebrate! I can’t even believe it. I may still get ridiculously nervous and awkward every time I record an episode, but it is worth it for all the wonderful people it has brought into my life. VIRTUAL GROUP HUG.
For today, as usual, I have book news, a cat picture, some funny stuff, and a recommendation for another awesome upcoming 2021 book. Let’s get started, shall we?
Here’s Monday’s trivia question: The fictional town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut is the setting for which book series? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)
Deals, Reals, and Squeals!
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Warner Bros. Television has inked an overall deal with activist and I’m Not Dying with You Tonight author Kimberly Latrice Jones.
Joy Harjo will serve a rare third term as U.S. poet laureate.
Here’s the first teaser trailer for Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Picador has won a four-way auction for 10 books from Jamaica Kincaid.
Penguin Random House is buying Simon & Schuster.
The Queen’s Gambit adaptation has caused sales of chess books and sets to spike through the roof.
Here’s the first trailer for Cherry, based on the novel by Nico Walker.
Lorde is publishing a photo book about her trip to Antarctica.
This is a great story about how German librarians caught a book thief.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library documentary is set to air in December.
The Expanse has been renewed for a sixth and final season.
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:
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, January 26, 2021)
This book was a high octane adventure from beginning to end! The publicist for this book practically drooled when she told me I should read it, and a few Rioters have been jumping up and down about it too. So I picked it up and started reading it without knowing what I was getting into and WOW. So if you want to feel the same way, STOP HERE. The rest of you, follow me to the next paragraph!
Nora is a teenager living in northern California with her aunt. At the beginning of the book, we think her biggest problem is that her ex-boyfriend and best friend, Wes, finds out that she’s in love with their mutual other best friend, Iris. Wes is hurt that Nora and Iris kept it a secret from him. But then they walk into a bank together and suddenly they’re in the middle of a robbery, and their feelings will have to wait. How rude!
But what seems like a straight-forward bank heist goes sour really quickly when the volatile robbers mess up their plan. Now they have hostages and the law right outside. But that’s the least of their problems. Because they don’t realize that among the hostages is a young woman who has already been several girls in her short lifetime, and has enough dangerous criminal experience to turn the tables on them. What started out as a bank robbery has now turned into a multi-layered game of cat-and-mouse, because as it turns out, this isn’t the scariest situation Nora has ever been in.
This book is so INTENSE. It jumps back and forth from the robbery in progress and the hostages with their MacGyver-ish attempts to get out of the bank, to Nora’s earlier life pulling jobs with her mother, a con woman who ends up married to a dangerous man. It’s so well done and extremely cinematic. I can’t wait to see the Netflix adaptation with Millie Bobby Brown!
(Content warning for descriptions of chemical use, physical violence, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse, murder, torture, and gore.)
What I’m reading this week.
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The Startup Wife: A Novel by Tahmima Anam
Appleseed by Matt Bell
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith III
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
Pun of the week:
Shopping centers, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen the mall.
And this is funny:
May we all look so spiffy in our tiny hats.
Happy things:
Here are a few things I enjoy that I thought you might like as well:
- Check, Please. If you haven’t read this comic yet, I suggest you drop everything and read it now. It’s available on her website or in two trade paperbacks. I like to reread it every few months and make heart eyes.
- Happiest Season. I really liked this movie, mostly because I have a crush on everyone in it. (CW for characters being outed and homophobia.)
- Numberzilla. Still not tired of this game.
- Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.
And here’s a cat picture!
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Well, this looks like a perfectly normal thing to see when you wake up.
Trivia answer: The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin
Remember that whatever you are doing or watching or reading this week, I am sending you EXTRA love and hugs. Please be safe, and be mindful of others. It takes no effort to be kind. I’ll see you again on Thursday. – xoxo, Liberty