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Book Radar

SHUGGIE BAIN is Getting the Series Treatment and More Book Radar!

Welcome back to another Monday, book lovers! I hope you had an enjoyable weekend. I am currently writing this on Friday, so you’re in the future. But once I am finished, my weekend plans include reading—of course—and I also want to watch Godmothered, which just started streaming on Disney+. It looks like a good distraction. I’ll let you know how it is!

Now, for today: I have book news, a cat picture, some funny stuff, and a recommendation for another awesome upcoming 2021 book (featuring a zillion alien worms.) Let’s get started, shall we?

Here’s Monday’s trivia question: What color was Anna Karenina’s bag in the Tolstoy novel of the same name? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

luster

Raven Leilani has won the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize for Luster.

Author Alissa Nutting’s cartoon Teenage Euthanasia was picked up by Adult Swim.

Netflix released the trailer for Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Burglar.

Akwaeke Emezi is releasing their debut book of poetry in 2022.

Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning novel, Shuggie Bain, is being adapted into a series.

Hulu has a new Hardy Boys series.

Here’s the first look at Kristen Arnett’s new novel With Teeth.

Furia author Yamile Saied Méndez announced her second book.

The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit stars are hoping to keep author J.R.R. Tolkien’s house from being sold.

And speaking of Lord of the Rings, the new series adaptation just added a bunch more cast members.

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: 

Jillian vs. Parasite Planet by Nicole Kornher-Stace, Scott Brown (illustrations) (Tachyon Publications, July 13, 2021)

Oh, how I adored this upcoming middle grade novel! Jillian is an 11-year-old who has a lot of anxiety about trying new things. She’s very excited when her scientist parents bring her with them for Take Your Daughter to Work Day, because she has always wanted to see their lab. But when they tell her—surprise!—they’ve managed to get her a seat on their next off-planet mission, she is apprehensive. Her parents assure her that it is the safest planet and the dullest mission there is, so she will be just fine.

Famous. Last. Words.

Instead, upon arriving on the planet, their shuttle crashes, her parents are severely injured, and now it is up to Jillian to get them back. Not exactly how she saw her day going when she got up that morning. Thankfully, Jillian does have the help of SABRINA, a sentient, sarcastic nanobot-ish shapeshifter AI, who changes into things she needs, or can separate and be two places at once. SABRINA is like the genie from the animated Alladin movie with the personality of the Flight of the Navigator robot.

So with SABRINA’s help, Jillian will have to find food and shelter and keep her parents safe for five days while waiting for their return portal, all while fighting off teeming masses of invasive green worms, who seem to want to eat them! As the days go by, Jillian finds her strength and faces her fears to save herself and the ones she loves.

The planet and the aliens are cool, the story is action packed and occasionally intense, and the characters are wonderful. I really loved SABRINA, the snarky not-robot cloud thingy.

(Content warning: Child peril, parental accidents and injuries, anxiety, animal death, gore.)

What I’m reading this week.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

The House Uptown by Melissa Ginsburg

The Eighth Wonder of the World: The True Story of André the Giant by Bertrand Hébert and Pat Laprade

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Pun of the week: 

You should wear glasses while doing math. It improves division.

And this is funny:

Big guffaws and nostalgia feels, all in one tweet!

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.
  • Bob’s Burgers. I am rewatching some of my favorite episodes for the fifth time. I love how the show never makes the kids feel bad for being themselves.
  • Numberzilla. Still not tired of this game.
  • Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.

And here’s a cat picture!

Okay, but…why though?

Trivia answer: Red.

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