Welcome to another Thursday Book Radar, Book Friends!
How have you been? For me, life has been pretty hectic lately, but I’ve been doing my best to take breaks for fun. Because joy and fun are a part of living a healthy life, right? Some highlights from this past week: I did some wine tasting on Bainbridge Island, I saw Garbage in concert (yes, Shirley Manson was there), I went to my favorite Silent Reading Party, and tonight I’m going to the Stranger Thing Experience. Good times! Work hard, play hard. Etc.
Looking for fascinating stories, informed takes, useful advice, and more drawn from our collective experience as power readers, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and bookish professionals? Subscribe to The Deep Dive, a biweekly newsletter to inform and inspire readers, delivered to your inbox! Your first read (The Power Reader’s Guide to Reading Logs & Trackers) is on the house. Check out all the details and choose your membership level at bookriot.substack.com.
Anyway, you’re here to talk books, so let’s do that!
Book Deals and Reveals
Tordotcom Publishing has revealed the cover of celebrated author Sofia Samatar‘s “mystical, revolutionary space adventure” The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain. The book is out on April 16, 2024.
Author Cormac McCarthy is currently working on a script for the film adaptation of his 1985 novel Blood Meridian. In April, it was announced that the film adaptation would be directed by John Hillcoat, who previously adapted McCarthy’s novel The Road.
Filmmaker Noah Baumbach is set to publish his first book with Knopf. The writer-director’s currently untitled memoir was acquired in a highly competitive auction by Jordan Pavlin, Knopf SVP and Editor-in-Chief.
Rickey Fayne’s debut novel All God’s Children is slated for a 2025 release from Little, Brown and Company. An excerpt from the book, which has been described as reminiscent of work by authors like Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Ralph Ellison, appeared in American Short Fiction and was a finalist for a National Magazine Award.
Bestselling author Lisa Gardner has signed a three-book, North American rights agreement with Grand Central Publishing. The first book, Still See You Everywhere, is scheduled for a March 2024 release.
Seth Wickersham, a senior writer at ESPN, has signed a two-book, world rights agreement with Hyperion Avenue. According to the publisher, the first book, The Quarterback, explores “American ambition” as seen through the lens of the “unique role of quarterback.” It’s slated for a fall 2025 release.
Davis School District in Utah has officially banned the Bible from elementary and middle schools. The Book of Mormon may be next.
Barnes & Noble just released their “Best Books of the Year (So Far),” and the list is full of surprises.
From passport services to staff social workers, here are tons of things U.S. public libraries offer that you might not know about.
Book Riot Recommends
Hi, welcome to everyone’s favorite segment of Book Radar called Book Riot Recommends. This is where I’ll talk to you about all the books I’m reading, the books I’m loving, and the books I can’t wait to read and love in the near future. I think you’re going to love them too!
Subscribe to First Edition for interviews, lists, rankings, recommendations, and much more, featuring people who know and love books.
Can’t Wait for This One!
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (Feiwel & Friends, March 19, 2024)
Ok y’all. We’re going to have to wait for this one for a while, so strap in. But how could I not hype it up almost a year in advance? I mean! That cover! That title! The fact that this is Àbíké-Íyímídé’s sophomore follow up to the amazing and widely-loved Ace of Spades. This one is going to take readers by storm in 2024. So go ahead and mark your calendars. You won’t want to forget about this book.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie is a YA contemporary mystery that follows Sade Hussein, a high school student who is transferring to the elite and prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school for her junior year. After Sade’s roommate Elizabeth mysteriously disappears, the rest of her classmates suspect Sade, the strange new girl, is somehow involved. And with rumors following her around campus, Sade soon becomes entangled with a strange group of girls collectively known as the “Unholy Trinity.”
When no one else seems to know (or care) what happened to Elizabeth, Sade decides to take matters into her own hands and investigate the disappearance herself. But the further she and her friend Baz dive into the case, the more troubling Elizabeth’s disappearance becomes. And the more dark secrets about the school they uncover. Then a student is murdered (dun dun DUN).
Words of Literary Wisdom
“Fire is immense and immeasurable; it will keep expanding, reproducing, until water or air stop it. If the Lord cherishes us, why are we so fragile and fire so grand? Pointless debate. We are the fire, and the fire is us. We were born with electricity in our hearts, the divine flame.”
— Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy
Thursday Memes
I know Monday is our regularly schedule meme day, but I’m all thrown off because of the recent Memorial Day holiday (I know it wasn’t that recent but just go with it). And I couldn’t wait til Monday to share this gem.
I mean, this is, after all, breaking Taylor Swift news.
And Here’s A Cat Picture!
Cersei and I have been catching up with The Ultimatum, and yeah, these relationships are exhausting. Look at her. She. Can’t. Even.
And that is all for today, everyone! I hope you’re remembering to have fun. I hope you find joy this weekend. I hope you have a nice brunch with friends or something. Much love!