Dear Book Friends,
How are things? Murray has been a little sick this week, so keep my sweet orange kitty in your thoughts. I’m hoping next time we touch base, I can give you good news! Right now, he’s just sleeping on the couch. That sweet little bean. Anyway, enough about cats. Let’s talk books. Then we can talk cats again.
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Book Deals and Reveals
Look at this beautiful cover! Here’s the cover reveal for Linda Cheng’s Gorgeous Gruesome Faces, a “sapphic speculative thriller debut featuring terrible queer girls in a deadly idol competition.” This one’s out on November 7.
Kerry Washington has posted the cover of her upcoming memoir Thicker than Water. The actress said in an interview with E! News, “Often when I am in water, I feel more connected to myself and my truth. So as I thought about creating a cover for this book, I felt that an image of myself underwater might help convey how much of my true self I am offering to readers.” Thicker Than Water is out on September 26.
Sony Pictures has released a new Across the Spider-Verse trailer that reveals new details about the highly-anticipated animated Spider-Man sequel. The movie is set to hit theaters on June 2.
Speaking of Spider-Man, Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks will release a brand new original short film titled The Spider Within. The short film is set within the world of the upcoming film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and will debut exclusively at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this June.
Entertainment Weekly is doing a deep dive into the new live-action The Little Mermaid. Halle Bailey, who is playing Ariel, Melissa McCarthy, who plays Ursula, and director Rob Marshall have shared details behind the making of the new film.
Paddington is back! The long-awaited threequel Paddington in Peru will begin production on July 24.
Bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson is publicly challenging Audible, claiming the Amazon audiobook platform “treat[s] authors very poorly.”
Camilla Läckberg and Henrik Fexeus’ bestselling crime novels are being adapted into a three-season English-language TV series at Viaplay. The adaptation will be based on the books Trapped, Cult and upcoming novel Mirage.
An adaptation of Victor LaValle’s most recent novel Lone Women is in the works. “We sold the rights about six months ago to one of the cool streamers,” LaValle said in an interview with Esquire. “I’m adapting that myself. I’ve written the pilot and we have an amazing director attached to it, plus a wonderful actress to play Adelaide. We’re trying to turn that into a season. Here’s hoping.”
Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider is writing a memoir about her experiences. “I shared dozens of 20-second anecdotes about myself on Jeopardy!, but there’s much more to my story, and I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity to share it with the world,” she says. Schneider’s memoir, In the Form of a Question, will be out on October 3.
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!
Can’t Wait for This One!
Only She Came Back by Margot Harrison (Little, Brown and Company, November 14)
Only She Came Back is the perfect YA thriller for fans of true crime, and it’s out this November! It all starts on July 28 at 6:30 p.m., when Kiri Dunmore stumbles out of the desert wearing her boyfriend Callum Massey’s sweatshirt, covered in blood. She says he’s still out there somewhere, but he’s likely dead.
With “survival guru” Callum Massey missing, the world — and his hundreds of thousands of YouTube followers — is shocked. True crime fanatic Sam becomes completely obsessed with the case, especially after she finds out the prime suspect is Kiri, her old classmate from high school. Even though they were never close, Sam is desperate to know more about the case and so she reaches out to Kiri. When Kiri starts confiding in her, Sam realizes there’s more to this mysterious disappearance than she ever could have imagined.
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Words of Literary Wisdom
“I had always assumed love carried itself easily through various permutations and disintegrations. Now I find myself disassociating them from the people I had known my parents to be. I can’t decide which is worse, coming up against the limitations of their souls or the limitations of my love.”
— Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
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.
We love to see authors supporting authors on social media. Afer author Suzanne Young shared a picture of a room full of empty chairs at a Barnes & Noble book signing event last week, authors came out of the woodwork to show their support. Young’s post has since gone viral. The author, who was promoting her new novel In Nightfall, called her empty book signing a “career low point” and said that she was “crying the entire way home.” But authors, including Neil Gaiman, have taken to social media to share their similar experiences. Young says she has been overwhelmed by the responses. The author tweeted, “Genuinely, I didn’t know how common this was until now. But this outpouring of support has been incredible.”
And Here’s A Cat Picture!
Oh hey, I made a meme of Murray using the official Barbie meme maker. Are you all as excited for this movie as I am? Murray is excited obviously. He’s also hitting the dance floor.
Now time to make Barbie memes of your cat, and send them to me!
And that’s all for Thursday’s Book Radar. We’ll talk again soon, friends!