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Book Deals and Reveals

Tordotcom Publishing has revealed the cover of Nghi Vo’s novella Into the Riverlands, the third book in Vo’s The Singing Hills Cycle.

FX has ordered Kindred to series. The show is based on the novel by Octavia Butler and will star newcomer Mallori Johnson. The cast also includes Micah Stock (The Right Stuff), Ryan Kwanten (The Oath), Gayle Rankin (GLOW), Austin Smith (Random Acts of Flyness), Antoinette Crowe-Legacy (Godfather of Harlem) and David Alexander Kaplan (Creepshow).

Here’s the cover reveal of Sweeney Boo’s new graphic novel Over My Dead Body. You can preorder it now, and it’s out on August 30th, 2022.

In a six-figure acquisition, Liz Pearsons at Thomas & Mercer bought the thrillers Hollow Beasts and Blood Mountain by Alisa Lynn Valdés, author of best-selling books The Dirty Girls Social Club, Playing with Boys, and The Three Kings.

Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway will star in the new crime drama film Eileen, based on the novel by Ottessa Moshfegh.

New year, new book club picks. Publisher’s Weekly has rounded up all the new picks from all of the major celebrity/online book clubs for the month of January.

For the second year in a row, Marvel has announced an X-Men fan election.

Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie will be starring opposite newcomer Aria Mia Loberti in the upcoming adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the Light We Cannot See.

Roxane Gay is launching a new podcast talk show with Luminary. The Roxane Gay Agenda will release on January 25th, with new episodes premiering weekly.

Alyson Sinclair is the new owner of online literary publication the Rumpus. Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn has been named editor-in-chief. Here’s what’s in store for the literary publication now.

Many know Maya Angelou as the iconic activist, poet, and performer. Now she will also be known as one of the new faces on U.S. currency.

Book Riot Recommends

I’m a Contributing Editor at Book Riot, I write the Today in Books newsletter, and I’m a Bibliologist for Book Riot’s Tailored Book Recommendations subscription service. I also have a PhD in English, so I’m basically a doctor of books. Books are my life, in other words, so in this section of the newsletter, let me share with you some upcoming books I’m super excited about. And I think you will be too!

Can’t Wait for This One

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings (Amistad, August 9)

Oh boy. I have been WAITING for this one. And now that we’ve finally got a cover and a firm release date, I am so excited to share it with you. Did you read Megan Giddings’ 2020 literary horror/sci-fi/thriller Lakewood? It left me feeling strange and unsettled. I also felt like I’d just read something truly original, a story that seemed so important and yet had not been told before. At least, not like that.

So last year, I heard whispers that Giddings was coming out with a new book and that it was going to be witchy and it was going to be called The Women Could Fly. Obviously, without even having a cover or a release date or even a synopsis, I was already like, yep, sign me up. Every day since, I’ve been watching the Goodreads page for The Women Could Fly like a hawk, waiting for more information to drop. A release date. A cover. A bat signal. Anything. And, well, as you know… it’s finally here!

So here’s what we know now. Like Lakewood, Giddings’ latest promises to be a novel that mixes speculative genres with literary fiction and social commentary, and this one’s being compared to the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler.

The Women Could Fly is set in a dystopian world where witches are real and The State mandates that all women are married by the age of 30. If they are not married by then, they must enroll in a registry that allows for their every move to be monitored. 27 year-old Josephine Thomas has never known why her mother mysteriously disappeared. But now as Josephine nears 30 and still has no interest in getting married, she feels like she understands her mother more than ever. When Jo is offered the opportunity to honor one last request from her mother, Jo will leave behind the life she’s always known to feel a connection to her one last time.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Word of Literary Wisdom

“Horror’s not a symptom, it’s a love affair.”

— My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

What’s Up in the Book Community?

My iPhone is constantly telling me I spend too much time staring at my screen, which is honestly so rude. But this means I spend a lot of time scrolling around the online book community: BookTube, Bookstagram, BookTok, BookLinkedIn (JK. That’s not a thing… I don’t think). You get the idea. Don’t have the time, energy, or the will to do all of that yourself? No problem. I got you. In this weekly section of Book Radar, we’ll take a look at something cool, interesting, and/or newsy that’s going on in the book community.

The 2021 wrap-up videos are still underway all over YouTube, and y’all. I’ve been watching so many of them. So, so many. I just love seeing what other people read, what they loved, what they hated, what they were surprised by, what they were disappointed by, and all the stuff in between. Here are some good ones you should check out.

Do you have a fave BookTuber? Let me know about it.

Your Weekend Reading Soundtrack

Surprise! This is what I’m listening to these days, so now you have to listen to it too. (it’s the Weeknd’s Dawn FM)

And Here’s A Cat Picture!

We haven’t gotten to feature the beautiful Cersei in a while (she’s a shy baby), so here she is! So Cersei likes to do this thing where she waits until we’re about to get up to jump in our laps. We watched an entire football game yesterday (gooooo Dawgs), and this girl waited until AFTER the game was over to jump into my husband’s lap. Of course, then Ben had to stay there until she was ready to leave. That’s just the rule of cats.

And that’s all for today, friends! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I can’t wait to talk to you all on Monday! Happy weekend reading!

❤️ Emily