Sponsored by Little, Brown and Company.
Florence Darrow is a low-level publishing employee who believes she’s destined to be a famous writer. When she becomes the assistant to an enigmatic novelist known as Maud Dixon—whose true identity is a secret—it seems like Florence’s big chance. She eagerly accompanies Maud to Morocco, where her new novel is set. But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night—and no sign of her boss—she’s tempted to take a shortcut. Instead of hiding in Maud Dixon’s shadow, why not take the bestselling pseudonym for herself?
Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? I spent mine—wait for it—reading books. I have reached a point in my life where I am suddenly panicking about how many unread books I have in my house. My unread physical book numbers have gone waaaaaay up since most of my work reading became electronic. I used to get a lot of physical galleys but since the pandemic, I get PDFs almost exclusively. So the only physical books coming into the house now are I buy books that I want to read, but I never seem to get to them. So this weekend I have decided I am going to dedicate one day a week just to backlist to try and tackle this Cadillac problem. I love a reading challenge!
Moving on: I have some exciting book news for you today and a look at a wonderful witchy book, plus cover reveals, a terrible pun, my kitty queen, and trivia! Let’s get started, shall we?
Here’s Monday’s trivia question: What dish is served on New Year’s Day at a buffet at Una and Geoffrey Alconbury’s house in Bridget Jones’s Diary? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)
Deals, Reals, and Squeals!
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Oprah Winfrey to interview The Hill We Climb poet Amanda Gorman on Apple TV Plus.
For the first time, a new edition of Lord of the Rings will include J.R.R. Tolkien’s own art.
Congratulations to Rioter Adiba Jaigirdar, who has not one but TWO upcoming books!
Here’s the cover reveal of Black Boy Joy edited by Kwame Alexander.
David Duchovny will star in the series adaptation of his Truly Like Lightning book.
Here are the six writers on the Dylan Thomas prize shortlist.
Nnamdi Asomugha, Jessica Chastain, and Eddie Redmayne will star in the adaptation of The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber.
Here’s the cover reveal of City of Illusion by Victoria Ying.
Matthew McGough’s book The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation is being adapted for television.
The #DVPit founder has launched a nonprofit to better serve diverse authors and illustrators.
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Carmen Maria Machado has won the £30,000 Rathbones Folio Prize for In the Dream House.
Here’s the cover reveal of Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain.
Here are the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award winners.
Alexander Siddig has joined the cast of Apple’s Shantaram.
Christopher Gorham has joined Netflix’s adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer.
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:
Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom (Tor Nightfire, September 14)
If I had to do an elevator pitch for this book, I would call it The Witch movie meets Carrie. Abitha is a young woman in Connecticut in 1666, where she was sent my her parents to marry a farmer. She and her husband, Edward, live on the farm and attend church with their Puritan neighbors, and not much else.
At the beginning of the book their goat, Samson, goes missing, and it turns out it has something to do with the reanimation of—Church Lady voice—Satan. That’s right, the wilderness demons have brought Satan back to life (you’ll later find out what happened to him the first time around), although he’s having an identity crisis. Could he really be the bad creature everyone tells him he is?
Meanwhile, Edward’s horrible brother Wallace has lost Edward and Abitha’s farm in a bet. They were renting to own and only had one payment left, but now their dreams are shattered. And then, Edward dies. But not before the town elders rule in favor of Abitha and Edward keeping their land, which enrages his brother.
Wallace sees Edward’s death as a chance to take his land back, but Abitha is not as easily bossed around as the other women in the village, nor is she afraid of speaking her mind. While Wallace threatens to do everything he can to get his land back from Abitha, and the people of the village are starting to gossip about what kind of woman would live alone with a cat (SPOILER: It rhymes with pitch), Abitha’s busy making an ally of a cloven-footed gentleman she met in the woods named Slewfoot. And she’s not going down without a fight.
I thought this book was great fun! I loved how Abitha refused to back down, standing up for herself and doing the right thing, even in the face of the threat of the stockades and imprisonment. I also loved how Slewfoot was not behaving like the bad guy that everyone says he should be. It’s wild to think how people were so scared all the time in Colonial New England, and how they also turned on each other so quickly. And the ending is one long action-packed revenge scene, à la Carrie.
(CW for murder, gore, violence, fire, animal death, religious abuse, and misogyny)
What I’m reading this week.
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Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Because of You by Dawn French
Chouette by Claire Oshetsky
Moon and the Mars by Kia Corthron
Aquarium by Yaara Shehori, Todd Hasak-Lowy (translator)
Groan-worthy joke of the week:
Why do seagulls fly over the ocean? Because if they flew over the bay, we’d call them bagels.
And this is funny:
You have to love a sassy bird.
Happy things:
Here are a few things I enjoy that I thought you might like as well:
- 3rd Rock from the Sun: This show is dumb and certainly problematic at times, like most old shows, but it is just the right of mindless silly my brain needs right now. I’m not big on reality these days. And everyone in it is fantastic. It’s streaming for free on Peacock. Also, I still want Harry’s coat.
- Gravity Falls: Okay, but seriously, have you watched this show? It’s my favorite cartoon. Yes, I just rewatched it three weeks ago. Yes, it has been many times. No, I’m not sorry. I also made a playlist with 64 versions of the theme song.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: My love of all things Alan Tudyk right now has led me to another rewatch of this fabulous cartoon.
- Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.
And here’s a cat picture!
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Zevon tilts his head when he’s thinking, as if putting his brain up on its side helps him. In this photo, he’s trying to decide if he should investigate my dinner.
Trivia answer: Turkey curry.
Remember that whatever you are doing or watching or reading this week, I am sending you 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
