Author: Emily Martin

Sandhya Menon Announces Her Next Adult Romance Novel

On Instagram earlier today, Sandhya Menon announced the details of her second adult rom com novel The Sizzle Paradox, which she will publish under her adult romance pen name Lily Menon. Menon shared a starred review from Kirkus, which reads, “Menon’s latest novel follows the unbeatable rom-com blueprint of laugh-out-loud moments…and sweltering sex scenes… A 5 out of 5 on the romance scale.” The Sizzle Paradox will be out from St. Martin’s Griffin on July 14th.

Hulu Sets Premiere Date for Conversations with Friends

Hulu has set the premiere date for their upcoming series adaptation of Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. The 12-episode series will premiere on the streaming service on May 15th. Conversations With Friends will simultaneously debut on BBC Three. Hulu also released an extended trailer for the series on Monday. The trailer marks the debut of a new Phoebe Bridgers song, “Sidelines.” The series will star Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn, Jemimia Kirke, and newcomer Alison Oliver, in her first-ever screen credit.

Random House and Sugar23 Partner to Launch Book Imprint

Penguin Random House’s Random House division is teaming up with Sugar23, a TV/film and content management and media production house, to launch the imprint Sugar23 Books. The launch of Sugar23 Books/Random House will effectively end the publishing program of a previously established Sugar23 book imprint launched at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2020. In a release, Sugar23 founder Michael Sugar praised Random House’s “track record of publishing masterful storytellers and amplifying stories.”

Nimona is Being Made into a Netflix Movie

Nimona by ND Stevenson is being adapted into a film. A previous movie version of Nimona was cancelled when the studio closed, but it’s now being adapted by Netflix and will be out in 2023.

Disney+ Casts Walker Scobell as Title Role in Percy Jackson Series

Walker Scobell has landed the title role in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Disney+’s series adaptation of author Rick Riordan’s best-selling novels. “Walker Scobell is an incredibly talented young man who blew us away with his audition tapes for the role of Percy,” Riordan wrote on his website. “Many of you recently discovered how great Walker is when you watched his movie The Adam Project, in which Walker lit up the screen as a younger version of Ryan Reynolds’ character. We were fortunate enough to audition Walker months before that movie came out, but the film only confirmed what we already knew about his talent. It was obvious to me and the rest of the team that Walker had the perfect mix of comedic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark and heroism to embody our hero Percy Jackson.”

AMC Releases First Teaser Trailer for Interview with the Vampire

AMC has released the first teaser trailer of the upcoming series adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. AMC has also released the official logo for the show, and a release window. We should expect the series to premier in fall 2022. Just in time for Halloween!

Alice Walker Headlines 2022 Mississippi Book Festival

After two years of being virtual due to COVID-19, the Mississippi Book Festival is set to return in-person this year, with author Alice Walker headlining, exactly 40 years after the release of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple. “We are thrilled to have Alice Walker back in the city where she once lived and the place where her daughter was born,” Mississippi Book Festival Executive Director Ellen Daniels said. “Her appearance will be a homecoming of sorts for her and we are honored that book lovers and festival-goers will have the opportunity to share in that moment.” The festival plans to announce more attending authors in the coming weeks. You can find out more about it here.

6 Databases Offered by Public Libraries to Know and Try

From genealogy services to archives of primary resources, discover some of the databases offered by public libraries across the country.

Tom Hiddleston is Starring in Apple’s The White Darkness

Apple has given a straight-to-series order for The White Darkness, which is based on the nonfiction book by David Grann and will star Tom Hiddleston. The series is a co-production between Universal Content Productions and Apple Studios, and it comes from showrunners Soo Hugh and Mark Heyman. The White Darkness will be the second series for Hugh at Apple following the critically acclaimed adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko. The series will also be the second project for Hiddleston at Apple, as the Loki star will also appear opposite Clare Danes in the Apple’s forthcoming The Essex Serpent, an adaptation of the novel by Sarah Perry.

DC and Webtoon Announce new Vixen, Red Hood, and Zatanna Titles

DC and WEBTOON have announced a new trio of titles that will be joining the platform later this year: Vixen: NYC, Red Hood: Outlaws, and Zatanna & The Ripper. Vixen, written by Jasmine Walls with lead artist Manou Azumi, will be out on May 26th. The two other new titles will be released later in 2022.

Whoopi Goldberg to Play Bird Woman in Anansi Boys TV Series from Neil Gaiman

Whoopi Goldberg is joining Amazon Studios’ Anansi Boys, a new TV series based on the fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman. Goldberg has been cast as Bird Woman, God of the Birds. She is the main villain opposite protagonist Charlie Nancy (Malachi Kirby). Gaiman, who serves as co-showrunner, writer, and executive producer on the project, said he’d always thought of Goldberg as Bird Woman when writing the book. In a statement about the casting, Goldberg said, “I have been a fan of this book for a very long time and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic.”

National Organization Offers No Actionable Support to Help Librarians with Book Bans

This week’s book censorship news includes a look at what the American Library Association is—and is not—doing right now.

Andre Holland to Play Black Panther Leader in Apple TV Show

Moonlight star Andre Holland will play the leader of the Black Panthers in a limited series for Apple TV. The Big Cigar will be a six-episode series based on the Playboy magazine article that detailed how Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton escaped to Cuba. Jim Hecht, who co-created HBO’s Winning Time based on the book by Jeff Pearlman, will write the script and executive produce The Big Cigar. Janine Sherman Barrois, who created TNT’s Claws and OWN’s Kings of Napa, will serve as showrunner. Don Cheadle is set to direct the first two episodes.

Drag Race Icons Trixie Mattel and Katya Reveal Cover of New Book

Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive cover reveal for UNHhhh and Drag Race icons Trixie Mattel and Katya’s second book, Working Girls: Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Professional Womanhood. Trixie Mattel says, “I love our cover. Part of why I love it is because it is giving kind of ‘go girl, give us nothing corporate PowerPoint.’ It looks like on Drag Race when they have them do a fake book.” Working Girls follows Trixie Mattel and Katya’s New York Times bestselling debut, Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood, which came out in 2020. Their new book is now available for preorder and will hit shelves on October 25th.

Penguin Launches Little Clothbound Classics Series

Penguin Classics is launching a Little Clothbound Classics series, which will star publishing this August. The series will be collectable, small-format editions of stories and short novels. Penguin hopes to showcase the range and diversity of their classics list. The collection will include works by Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Jane Austen, Virigina Woolf, Yuko Tutshima, and Arthur Schnitzler, just to name a few. Each of the 48 books in the collection will be bound with brightly colored cloth and stamped with foil. Coralie Bickford-Smith will design the covers, and Jessica Harrison will serve as the editor of the series.

Cover Reveal and Excerpt: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Rayborn

Check out the exclusive cover reveal of Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age and read an excerpt from this action-packed thriller!

Celeste Ng Reveals Cover of Highly Anticipated New Novel

Yesterday on Instagram, Celeste Ng shared the cover of her highly anticipated new novel Our Missing Hearts. Of the cover designed by Hannah Wood, Ng said, “I love it so very much.” Ng’s novel, which comes out on October 4th, is available for preorder now.

Locke & Key to End With Third Season on Netflix

Locke & Key, the Netflix series based on Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s comics, will end with its forthcoming third season. This was a mutual decision between Netflix and co-showrunners Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill, who had envisioned a three-season arc for the story. “Once we began working on the series, we felt three seasons was the ideal length to bring the story of the Locke family and their Key House adventures to a satisfying conclusion,” Cuse and Averill said in a statement. “As storytellers, we are grateful that we had the opportunity to tell our version of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s incredible story exactly the way we wanted.” The final season is set to debut later this year.

This Small Library Off the Coast of Maine is Collecting Banned Books

A shed-turned-library in Matinicus Island, a small community in Maine, is preaching tolerance by filling its shelves with the nation’s most controversial books. Matinicus Island Library houses classics like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The library also includes contemporary books like Justin Richardson’s And Tango Makes Three. They also hope to obtain copies of Maus by Art Spiegelman. In an interview with Bangor Daily News, library volunteer Eva Murray said, “We are buying banned books in order to publicly push back against the impetus to ban books. To say, ‘If you don’t want it in your library, we want it in ours.'”

LGBTQ Rights Groups Sue Florida Over “Don’t Say Gay” Education Bill

The lawsuit alleges that the bill recruits parents as “roving censors” of LGBTQ content, suing school districts for any perceived infraction.

To All The Boys Spinoff Series XO, Kitty Adds 9 More to Its Cast

Netflix has added nine actors to its cast for XO, Kitty, the upcoming To All the Boys spinoff series. Joining Anna Cathcart, who is taking on the titular role, as series regulars are Choi Min-yeong (Dream Palace), Anthony Keyvan (Love, Victor), Gia Kim, Sang Heon Lee, Peter Thurnwald (Players), and Regan Aliyah (Club Mickey Mouse). Also joining the cast in recurring roles are Yunjin Kim (Lost), Michael K. Lee, and Jocelyn Shelfo (The Summer I Turned Pretty). Additionally, Netflix shared that XO, Kitty has started production in Seoul, South Korea, with Jennifer Arnold, Jeff Chan, Pamela Romanowsky and Katina Medina Mora signed on to direct this season. The series comes from co-showrunners and executive producer Jenny Han and Sascha Rothchild.

Robert Downey Jr. and Lionel Wigram Developing Sherlock Holmes Series for HBO

HBO Max is in early development of not one but two scripted series based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Robert Downey Jr., who played the Holmes in the popular Guy Ritchie feature films, will executive produce both shows with Lionel Wigram, who received a story credit on the first Holmes film and produced both. Details about the plot of the series are still being kept under wraps. It is unknown whether Downey will reprise his role as the world’s most famous detective.

Here’s the Cover for Nickelodeon Star Jennette McCurdy’s Memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died

Jennette McCurdy, former star of the Nickelodeon series iCarly, has written a memoir all about her experiences as a child actor. In I’m Glad My Mom Died, McCurdy discusses her relationship with her domineering mother, who pushed her towards becoming a child star, which led to anxiety, shame, and self-loathing that manifested into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. Now that McCurdy has found therapy and has stopped acting, she is ready to talk about her experiences.

McCurdy writes, “It was important for me to explore the emotional and psychological abuse I endured during my time as a young performer. I feel I didn’t have the tools, language, or support necessary to speak up for myself back then, so this book is a way for me to not only honor that experience and give voice to my former self, but hopefully to encourage young people to speak up for themselves in environments where they may be conditioned to just ‘play ball’ and ‘be a good sport.’ (Sorry for the sports idioms, I’ve never played sports so I have no idea why they’re spilling out of me.)”

I’m Glad My Mom Died will be published by Simon & Schuster on August 9, 2022.

Lost Charlotte Brontë Poems to Go on Sale on Author’s Birthday

The palm-sized collection of poems written by a 13 year-old Brontë will be offered up for $1.25 million on her birthday.

Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry Unveil First of 150 Little Town Libraries

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and entrepreneur wife Ayesha Curry are opening Little Town Libraries all over the Bay Area in California to promote literacy. Through their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, Stephen and Ayesha Curry have unveiled the first of 150 Little Town Libraries at Franklin Elementary in Oakland. “From kindergarten through third grade, making sure you are reading at your grade level by the time you get to third grade determines your educational future,” said Ayesha Curry. “So for us, turning those numbers around is really, really important.” According to a press release from the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, 1 in 3 children are reading at grade level by the end of third grade. In Oakland after two years of distance learning, only 15.4% of Black and 12.5% of Latine elementary students are reading at grade level.

Here’s the Cover Reveal of Alexis Henderson’s Upcoming Gothic Horror Novel House of Hunger

Alexis Henderson has tweeted the cover reveal of her upcoming gothic horror novel House of Hunger, first revealed in a Buzzfeed Books newsletter. The cover image is from photographer Lillian Liu and the cover design by Katie Anderson, who also designed the cover for Henderson’s The Year of the Witching. Read more about the novel and preorder it here.

Britney Spears Confirms She’s Writing A Book

Weeks after reports that Britney Spears had signed a multimillion-dollar deal to write a tell-all memoir, the pop star confirmed Monday that she is currently writing a book. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Spears wrote, “I’m writing a book at the moment and as it’s actually healing and therapeutic… it’s also hard bringing up past events in my life.” Spears also acknowledged that, while it’s difficult addressing her thoughts about events she wasn’t comfortable talking about in the past, she has decided that it’s time to “talk about it.”

National Read-In Set for Thursday Evening

Join Stella Parton and a slate of authors whose books have been challenged for a National Read-In event on Thursday, April 7th.

Morbius Scores Second-Lowest CinemaScore for any Marvel Adaptation

Sony’s Morbius finally hit theaters this weekend after pandemic-related delays, but according to the film’s CinemaScore ratings, the movie was not worth the wait. Morbius has received a C+ CinemaScore from audiences who saw the movie, giving it the second worst score of any Marvel adaptation. The only movie based on a Marvel character to receive a lower score was 2015’s The Fantastic Four. Box office scores for Morbius over the weekend were decent. The film took in $39.1M in the US and $84M worldwide. Morbius is currently playing in theaters.

The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Makes History with Grammy Win

The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical made history on Sunday night when the show creators Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear won the Grammy for best musical theater album. This is the first award from the Recording Academy for a piece of work that originated on TikTok. “A year ago when I asked the internet, ‘What if Bridgerton was a musical?’ I could not have imagined we would be holding a Grammy in our hands,” Barlow said during her acceptance speech. “We want to thank everyone on the internet who has watched us create this album from the ground up. We share this with you.”

You Begins Filming in London for Season 4

The hit thriller series You has begun filming its fourth season in London. The season will star returning series regulars Penn Badgley and Tati Gabrielle. This season also includes a whole new cast of characters, including Tilly Keeper as Lady Phoebe, Amy Leigh Hickman as Nadia, Ed Speleers as Rhys, Niccy Lin as Sophie, Aidan Cheng as Simon, Stephen Hagan as Malcolm, Ben Wiggins as Roald, Eve Austin as Gemma, Ozioma Whenu as Blessing, Dario Coates as Connie, Sean Pertwee as Vic, Brad Alexander as Edward, Alison Pargeter as Dawn, and Adam James as Elliot. Want more details about these characters and the upcoming season of You? Shadow & Act has provided full character descriptions.

Book Riot Will Match Your Donation to UNICEF for Aid to Ukraine

From April 4-6, Book Riot will match donations to UNICEF to assist in their efforts on the ground in Ukraine. Join us in donating!