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Today In Books

Todd Bol, Creator Of The Little Free Library Has Died: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by …And Then You Die of Dysentery: Lessons in Adulting from the Oregon Trail by Lauren Reeves


In Sad News: Todd Bol, Creator Of The Little Free Library Has Died

“Bol believed the now-ubiquitous little boxes of books — and the neighbors who cared for them — could change a block, a city, the world. So he brought them to front yards all over, often installing them himself.” A great read to get to know Bol and how The Little Free Library started and grew.

Holy Cats!

Have you seen the cast for the upcoming movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats?! Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, and Taylor Swift! If you’re wondering why I’m talking about Cats in a bookish newsletter, the musical was based on T. S. Eliot’s whimsical poems Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. The meow you know–sorry, not sorry.

In Merger News:

The Crown Publishing Group has joined the Random House Publishing Group. “As a result of the merger, Maya Mavjee, president and publisher of Crown, will leave the company at the end of the year. The imprints will retain their distinct editorial identities, McIntosh continued in the memo, and the change is effective immediately.” Random Crown will look awesome on tote bags–just sayin’.

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp to make your personal library books feel special.

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Today In Books

Lin-Manuel Miranda Reads Poem Inspired By Bourdain’s Passing: Today In Books

Just for Book Riot readers: sign up for an Audible account, and get two audiobooks free!


Lin-Manuel Miranda Is Gonna Make You Cry

With his reading on The Late Show of an excerpt from his new book. It’s a poem he wrote the morning he learned of Anthony Bourdain’s passing. His new book, G’morning G’night: Little Pep Talks For Me & You, is a compilation of his inspiring and affirming morning and evening tweets illustrated by Jonny Sun.

Twelfth Night Inspired Musical Coming To Amazon

It’ll be a contemporary television series musical inspired by Shakespeare’s play: “The complicated love story between a young man and biological young woman who, over the course of the series, begins to identify as gender-fluid.” We’re listening!

PEN America Sues Trump For Attacking Journalists

“When President Trump crosses the line and threatens to use his authority to punish the media, or actually does so, it is vital for the courts to step in and affirm that such threats and reprisals are unconstitutional,” wrote Jennifer Egan, PEN’s President, and Suzanne Nossel, PEN’s CEO.

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp to make your personal library books feel special.

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Unusual Suspects

This Amazing True Crime Story Involves Bees, Thieves, and Almonds

Hi mystery fans! Hope you get to relax this weekend and read a good book! Or solve a great mystery!


Sponsored by Easy Prey by Catherine Lo, from Amulet Books and PiqueBeyond

Only three students had access to a teacher’s racy photos before they went viral. There’s Mouse, a brainy overachiever so desperate to get into MIT that he would do almost anything, legal or not. There’s Drew, the star athlete with a history of passing private photos around. And there’s Jenna, a good girl turned rebel after her own pictures made the rounds last year. All three deny leaking the photos, but someone has to take the fall.


From Book Riot And Around The Internet

Rincey and Katie are back with a new Read or Dead with news, new releases, and a couple books for Hispanic Heritage Month!

Alice and Kim did a True Crime bonanza episode of For Real!

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite cover imageMy Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite is the #1 November 2018 LibraryReads pick! Check out the rest of the list.

Straight White Male Writers and Mid-Range Jumpers

Cover Face-Off: Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

The Orchid Thief author Susan Orlean’s Library-Themed Reading Recommendations

12 of our favorite thriller writers on what you need to read this season

For Your Consideration: Dev Patel as James Bond (Has my vote!)

Giveaway: And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library!

Adaptations And News

Next fall we get a romantic murder-mystery series set in 19th century New Orleans by Renée Ahdieh and yes, please, thank you!

Here’s more info about Tiffany D Jackson’s upcoming Let Me Hear A Rhyme plus an excerpt! I loved Allegedly and Monday’s Not Coming so I’m really looking forward to this one.

True Crime

This Amazing True-Crime Story Involves Bees, Thieves, and Almonds

“Last Seen” Surpasses 1 Million Downloads In Less Than Three Weeks

‘The Library Book’ By Susan Orlean Is Both A Riveting True Crime Exploration And A Love Letter To Libraries

Kindle Deals

The Possessions cover imageThe Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy is $1.99 and perfect for fans of thrillers that want a little weird/creepy thrown in the mix! (Review) (Sorry, I don’t remember trigger warnings.)

Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Anna Waterhouse is $1.99!!

My Weekend Reading Will Be

I just got my hands on Sandhya Menon’s upcoming There’s Something About Sweetie (that scream that cracked the earth was me getting this rom-com galley). And I can’t put down The Lies We Told by Camilla Way and Liane Moriarty’s upcoming Nine Perfect Strangers. Basically, I’m putting a Do Not Disturb sign up this weekend so I can just read!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

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Today In Books

And The Man Booker Prize Goes To…: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Libby, the one-tap reading app from your library and OverDrive


The Man Booker Prize Was Announced!

Congratulations to Anna Burns, the first Northern Irish author to win, for her novel Milkman.The judges were unanimous in their choice: “None of us has ever read anything like this before,” said Appiah, announcing the win at a dinner at the Guildhall in London. “Anna Burns’s utterly distinctive voice challenges conventional thinking and form in surprising and immersive prose. It is a story of brutality, sexual encroachment and resistance threaded with mordant humour.”

Exactly How Popular Was To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before?

According to Netflix 80 million subscribers watched its “Summer of Love” rom-coms over the past few months. And the adaptation of Jenny Han’s novel was one of the “most viewed original films ever with strong repeat viewing.” Yeah it was! If Netflix is taking notes and wants some more gigantic rom-com hits may I please introduce Sandhya Menon and Jasmine Guillory. You make the adaptations, we’ll bring the popcorn!

And In Book Resurrection News

V.E. Schwab’s debut novel The Near Witch will no longer be out of print! The part love story, part fairy tale, is being reissued by Titan Books with an introduction by Schwab on March 12, 2019.

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp to make your personal library books feel special.

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Today In Books

The Most Instagrammed Writers Of All Time: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Chronicle Books


The Most Instagrammed Writers Of All Time

U.K.-based McGowan Transcriptions decided to do some numbers and answer this for us. You can probably guess the writer in the number one place: William Shakespeare. You can check out the rest of the list, and awesome infographic, to see if your favorites made it. But I’ll tell you now if they’re alive they aren’t on the list.

Amandla Stenberg Discusses Starring In The Hate U Give

In this extended interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Stenberg talks about code switching, the powerful and very current novel, and brings the laughs!

The New Kindle Paperwhite Is Waterproof

Which is probably all you need to know if you’re a Kindle user tired of sticking your ereader in a Ziplock bag. Oh, and it’s $129. More details here.

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp to make your personal library books feel special.

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Unusual Suspects

Read the 1st in the Series In Time for the Upcoming Sequels

Hello mystery fans! I’ve recently gotten my hands on some advanced copies for upcoming sequels, so I thought I’d talk a bit about the first books in the series so you can read them in time for the sequels. Yay more mysteries!


Sponsored by the Verity Kent Mysteries by Anna Lee Huber

This stylish, atmospheric mystery is set in Britain just after WWI and stars Verity Kent, a brilliant and indomitable former Secret Service agent. Now in the shadow of The Great War, many look to the spirit world for answers, and Verity is convinced by a friend to attend a séance. When a medium channels the spirit of a woman Verity once worked with in the Secret Service, she must uncover the source of the spiritualist’s top secret revelation…With a compelling mystery and intriguing characters, fans of The Bletchley Circle, Grantchester and The Imitation Game won’t want to put this one down!


August Snow cover imageAugust Snow by Stephen Mack Jones (Sorry, I don’t remember if there were trigger warnings.): This was a great mystery starring an ex-marine/ex-cop who won a gigantic wrongfully-dismissed lawsuit against the police department and returns to Mexicantown, Detroit, his hometown. In the first book, August Snow ends up taking a case he’d declined after the “client”–who wanted him to investigate her investment bank–ends up dead. What I especially liked about the book was the balance of real life characters and the ethnically diverse community with Hollywood style action movie shoot-’em-up scenes. The FBI/cyber crime scenes weren’t always plausible but who cares because fun action movie! The sequel, Lives Laid Away, puts Snow on a case again, except this time it’s the Coroner on the case, an old friend, who slips him the photo of the victim pulled from the Detroit River in hopes Snow will get someone in Mexicantown to identify her.

widows of malabar hill cover imageThe Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (TW domestic violence): If you still haven’t read this wonderful historical mystery you’re going to want to get on that so you can cheer excitedly with me for the sequel! The first follows a bit of a before and after timeline as Perveen Mistry works for her father’s law firm in 1921 Bombay, India. She’s one of the first female lawyers and ends up unable to let go of what seems like a simple case of three widows signing away their inheritance. But really why would widows do that? Perveen can’t let it go and soon is investigating… This was one of the best mysteries released in 2018 and I’m looking forward to the sequel, The Satapur Moonstone, being a best in 2019 as it introduces Satapur’s royal family. Only Perveen’s council can be called upon because the maharanis live in purdah and do not speak to men.

Truly Devious cover imageTruly Devious by Maureen Johnson: This was a delightful mystery set in an elite school, Ellingham Academy, that is modern but full of nods to classic mysteries. Stevie Bell is excited to start her first year since she’s determined to solve the 1930s case involving the school founder’s kidnapped wife and daughter. But Stevie is in for a shock when there’s a recent murder that also needs solving! I’m super glad the sequel, The Vanishing Stairs, will be releasing in January because the first book leaves you on a cliffhanger, and I had not been warned and was not thrilled I had to wait an entire year standing on that cliff!

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano, John Brownjohn (Translator) (Sorry, I don’t remember if there were trigger warnings.): This was utterly delightful for two reasons: the way the story is told and Poldi’s character. Poldi is a Bavarian widow living in Sicily and her nephew, an aspiring writer visiting, narrates the story. Poldi is telling him the story as it happens, giving it this fun element like The Princess Bride where the story is interrupted sometimes in a comical way so that the nephew can talk about his failed writing attempts and so he and Poldi can quibble. Poldi is a speaks-her-mind-drinks-too-much-if-you’re-in-her-way-move-quickly fantastic character who is determined to solve a murder in a place she doesn’t know that well and I absolutely adored her. The story works for cozy mystery fans as it was more that pace. I’m really looking forward to finding out what Poldi gets herself into in the March release of Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna.

Recent Releases

The Craftsman cover imageThe Craftsman by Sharon Bolton (TBR: This looks like a dark thriller and perfect mood reading this month.)

Shell Game (V.I. Warshawski #19) by Sara Paretsky (TBR: My next procedural.)

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

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Today In Books

Ryan Coogler Officially Back For BLACK PANTHER Sequel: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH).

In the NIght Wood cover image


Ryan Coogler Officially Back For Black Panther Sequel

He’s signed the contract so it’s official: Ryan Coogler will write and direct the sequel! And that’s really all the news we’ve got so far for the sequel, and that’s all I need–who do I give my money to?!

BBC Sherlock’s Creative Team Is Bringing Us Dracula

Fangs out, popcorn ready, we’re getting a new Dracula adaptation! Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat are adapting Dracula for the BBC into three 90-minute episodes, and Netflix will stream the show in most countries outside the UK. “There have always been stories about great evil. What’s special about Dracula is that Bram Stoker gave evil its own hero.”

Little Miss Flint Is Putting More Books In Flint Kids’ Hands

And you can help Mari Copeny, the child activist who’s always helping her community, by helping her get more copies of books like The Hate U Give and Modern HERStory into the hands of local Flint, Michigan kids. And here’s the excellent book list Amazon wishlist for Flint Kid’s Read.

Don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp to make your personal library books feel special.

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Today In Books

There’s A HARRY POTTER Advent Calendar: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Hearts Unbroken cover image


If You’re A Harry Potter Fan And Celebrate Christmas

You’re going to want to know that Funko will be putting out a Harry Potter Advent Calendar this year! Just look at those big-headed-wittle-bodied figures.

New Literacy Effort: All Books For All Kids

Newbery Medal-winning author Kwame Alexander and Follett are creating All Books for All Kids so children have access to a wide range of books from a broad spectrum of voices. Here’s more about the campaign, Alexander, and Follett.

The Live-Action Remake Of Aladdin Now Has A Teaser Trailer

Which you can see here. And Will Smith revealed the first poster on Instagram. You can watch the movie when it hits theaters in May 2019. Raise your hand if you now have Prince Ali stuck in your head!

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library. Stamp all the books!

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Today In Books

Procedural Accusations Filed In Shooting Of Salman Rushdie’s Publisher: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Good Me Bad Me, now in paperback by Ali Land.

Good Me Bad Me cover image


Procedural Accusations Filed In Shooting Of Salman Rushdie’s Publisher

A little history: In 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie and anyone associated with his novel The Satanic Verses. In 1993 Publisher William Nygaard was attacked in Oslo. Now Norwegian police have filed accusations against several suspects.

New Academy Prize In Literature Awarded

After the rape scandal left no viable committee in place for the Nobel Prize for Literature, essentially cancelling it this year, The New Academy was created in hopes of filling in the void. And they’ve awarded Guadeloupean novelist Maryse Condé the New Academy prize in literature!

My Sister, The Serial Killer is the top pick for November’s Library Reads list

And totally belongs there! Not does Oyinkan Braithwaite‘s upcoming novel have a fabulous title but the book measures up to it. Prepare your TBR and check out the other 13 books on Library Reads November list.

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library. Stamp all the books!

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Unusual Suspects

Argument That Mystery Books Should Be Less Than 400 Pages

Hello mystery fans! So Netflix has a new buddy cop type show starring Tony Danza and Josh Groban–yes, the popera singer. I’ve seen the first two episodes and they’re entertaining and didn’t have violence towards women. So if you need a break from dark crime check out the first two episodes of The Good Cop.


Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Good Me Bad Me, now in paperback by Ali Land.

Good Me Bad Me cover imageWhen your mother is a serial killer, how far does the apple really fall from the tree? Good Me Bad Me is a dark and compelling psychological thriller.


From Book Riot and Around The Internet

Mycroft and Sherlock cover imageA wonderful interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as he Dives Back Into Mystery with Mycroft And Sherlock

Came across this delightful podcast episode where a married couple discuss their mystery likes and dislikes and rec a bunch of books for fall reading: Mystery Recommendations for October, sassy lady detectives vs. macho man investigators 

How Does ‘Killing Eve’ The Book End? It’s A Lot Different To What You Saw On TV (Obviously spoilers!)

The 5 Best L.A. Crime Novels: Nonfiction

Highly Recommended: Pastry Murder Mysteries Inside best-selling author Joanne Fluke’s addictive book series, where food is the main character

Rincey makes the argument that mystery books should be less than 400 pages and girl, same!

Can you solve the mystery of the missing opera diva?

Giveaway: Remember to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for all your book stamping needs!

Adaptations And News

The Little Drummer Girl cover imageHere’s the trailer for AMC’s six-part miniseries of John le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl. It premieres November 19th and stars Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård, and Michael Shannon.

We’re getting a fourth Veronica Speedwell Mystery!

And now Armie Hammer has signed on to Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile adaptation.

Kindle Deals

The Child cover imageThe Child by Fiona Barton is a very good book that is $1.99!! (Review) (TW rape)

From my TBR list the first in a series of funny, cozy historical mysteries is $1.99: A Quiet Life in the Country (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery #1) by T E Kinsey

And if you’re looking for an 80% character driven novel that focuses on the politics between police and media in Japan which ends with a twist you won’t see coming and like a thriller in the last 20%: Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama, Jonathan Lloyd-Davies (Translation) is $3.99!!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.